A slight hiccup, but Lasith is still in the lead
Maris Stella College batsman Lasith Croosepulle, who had been dominating the All-Island Schools of the Dialog 4G-the Sunday Times Most Popular Schoolboy Cricketer of the Year 2017, faced a massive slump in his vote base, as the results of 20th week are released.
Despite that fact Lasith still continues to lead the race for the sixth week running but the deficit between him and second in line, Navindu Nirmal of St. Aloysius College, has closed in considerably. Last week the gap between the two was 25339 but this week it stands as 16563. Usually Lasith had been getting receiving record number of combined votes, in tens of thousands, flops terribly this week and received only 246. His tally, though, moves up to 150329.
On the other hand Navindu becomes the top gainer this week with his combined vote count of 9022 for the ended week. This takes his tally to 133766, creating a possible clash between the top two in weeks to come. With seven more weeks to go till the end, it could be anybody's call, being an open competition. Mohamed Najath of Zahira College remains at third place. The full list will be pruned down to the Top 15 during this month and by end of May it will be further shortlisted to the Top 10.
Pulitha Yasas of Sri Sumangala College Panadura, being the only competitor to surpass the 4000 vote
All-Island Schools Emerging Schools International Schools
mark, continues to dominate the Emerging Schools category. He may be challenged by the new entrant Prabash Maduranga of Siri Piyarathana MV Padukka, who lands in to the second position with 852 votes. The International Schools category is still led by Shimraz Shahil of Alethea International School.
Important
Coupons of the competition will be published in the Sunday Times, the two English dailies, the Daily Mirror and DailyFT, and the two Sinhala dailies, Daily Lankadeepa and Ada. Coupons will run for 26 weeks with the final week set from July 2. Readers could vote for their favourite schoolboy cricketer and take them to the winning post during that period. Online voting could be done through Dialog Axiata's digital online voting system Portal to vote for the Most Popular Cricketer via www.dialog.lk/ cricket. The count of week 20 of digital voting was monitored and approved by auditors Pricewaterhouse Cooper. Lasith Croosepulle (Maris Stella College) ..................................... 150329 Navindu Nirmal (St. Aloysius' Galle) ............................................ 133766 Mohamed Najath (Zahira College) ................................................. 61571 Charana Nanayakkara (Thurstan College) ...................................... 10484 Santhush Goonathilake (St. Peter's College) .................................... 9136 Dinitha Basnayake (St. Benedict's College) ..................................... 6452 Romesh Nallaperuma (S. Thomas' College) ..................................... 6415 Helitha Vithanage (Royal College) .................................................... 1825 Nikesh Anjana (S. Thomas' College) ................................................ 1390 Mohamed Rifaz (Presidents College) ............................................... 1349 Lakshina Rodrigo (St. Peter's College).............................................. 1209 Sahan Suraweera (Ananda College) .................................................. 700 Hareen Buddhila (St. Aloysius College) .............................................. 557 Dileepa Jayalath (Ananda College) .................................................... 531 P.A. Dananjaya (Richmond College) ................................................... 291 Pulitha Yasas (Sri Sumangala Panadura) .......................................... 4111 Prabash Maduranga (Siri Piyaratana Padukka) .................................. 852 Sahan Perera (Christ King Pannipitiya) ............................................... 301 Imesh Basnayake (St. Peter's Gampaha) ........................................... 283 Gimhana Dhanushka (Piliyandala Central) ......................................... 130 Nipuna Ransika (P. de S. Kularatne MV) ............................................... 98 Methushan Thilina (Kegalu Vidyalaya) ................................................. 84 Suminda Lakshan (De La Salle Mutwal) ............................................... 51 Raveen Yasas (Devapathiraja Rathgama)............................................. 44 Hirusha Mendis (Siddartha Central Balapitiya) .................................... 32 Tissara Dilshan Jayananda (National School Polonnaruwa) ................... 8 Shrushee Adhishtana (St. Bernadette Kurunegala) ................................ 1 Shimraz Shahil (Alethea International) ............................................... 327 Tariq Haniff (Wycherley International) ................................................. 38
1. B.K. Goonasekara, 26/1, Station Lane, Nugegoda, 2. Aruna Lalith, SDI, 4th Floor, 240, Highlevel Road, Colombo 6, 3. Nishani Perera, 375/C, Moratuwa Kanda, Galagedara, Padukka, 4. T. Senaratne, 99, Aluth Mawatha, Kottawa, Pannipitya.