Pawan is the Most Popular -- pips Yohan at the post
Finally, he finished off where he started. It's Pawan Dias, who became the 37th Bata-the Sunday Times Most Popular Schoolboy Cricketer of the Year 2016 after battling out for several weeks.
Pawan of Royal College Panadura, who initially led the All-Island segment of the competition for 14 weeks and trailed for three weeks, bounced back big time to win the crown in style.
Last week Pawan started to accelerate, trailing by just 541 votes and in the final week he gained 13475 votes to finish off with a tally of 31904. It is with a lead of 7745 votes against Yohan Mendis of S. Thomas' College, who conceded his stronghold of three weeks in the end.
Yohan progressed adequately but by last week his leadership was in jeopardy once Pawan began to indicate a certain comeback, which eventually was the fact. He obtained 5189 votes and completes the race with a tally of 24159, but unfortunately as the runner-up.
It was Pawan all the way from the beginning until Yohan barged in and upset the apple cart 14 weeks later. Then again it was all about Yohan for the remaining three weeks, with the penultimate result indicating that the final out- come will be the one to anticipate. And it happened but to the delight of Pawan and his supporters. As any other grand finale, the situation only left excitement and anxiety and not to mention a thrilling end to a well fought battle.
Meanwhile Lahiru Thambawita of Holy Cross College Kalutara ends at third place while Lakthina Rodrigo of St. Peter's College and Trinity College skipper Ravin Sayer completes at fourth and fifth respectively.
Meanwhile the Emerging segment of the competition was claimed by Madawa Fernando of De La Salle College Mutwal. He was the one and only competitor for many weeks but did not have to sweat much. He goes on to win the title with a final tally of 2713 votes.