Lasith creates history in polling -- tops 200,000 mark

Overall leader Lasith Croosepulle of Maris Stella College Negombo became the first to reach the milestone of 200,000 votes in the history of the competition as Dialog 4G-the Sunday Times Most Popular Schoolboy Cricketer of the Year 2017 reaches its 23rd week.

Lasith, who usually has a good following added 11042 combined votes to take his tally to 208071 votes and take an unassailable lead of 67653 in the All-Island segment, the best margin recorded in the competition's history.

With the development, Lasith becomes a clear contender to finish off the race in style considering his present lead and the continuous flow of combined votes. Last week Lasith and second in line Navindu Nirmal of St. Aloysius College Galle had a deficit of 58575 but by this week it swells further making the leader's future quite safe with few more weeks to go.

Navindu, in the meantime, added 1964 combined votes to take his total count to 140418 but stands far behind the leader. His progress was not as hot as the beginning and his weekly addition keeps dropping. Unless his followers flock together to perform a miracle, Navindu has a slim chance to topple Lasith. Mohamed Najath of Zahira College continues to remain at third place.

In the Emerging Schools segment a clash is on cards between leader Pulitha Yasas of Sri Sumangala College Panadura and Prabash

All-Island Schools

Lasith Croosepulle Navindu Nirmal Mohamed Najath Charana Nanayakkara Santhush Goonathilake Dinitha Basnayake Romesh Nallaperuma Helitha Vithanage Nikesh Anjana Mohamed Rifaz

Emerging Schools

Pulitha Yasas Prabash Maduranga Sahan Perera Imesh Basnayake ...... 208071 .............. 140418 .................. 62435 ....... 10501 ..... 9373 ....... 6925 ....... 6415 ..................... 1838 .................. 1702 ................ 1412 ............ 4926 ............... 3522 ................ 720 ............. 348 Maduranga of Siri Piyarathana Padukka. Yasas added 607 combined votes in the ended week to move his tally up to 4926 while Prabash added 1057 to move to 3522. The deficit stands as 1404 in favour of Yasas at the moment. The International Schools category which had a major shakeup after Tariq Haniff of Wycherley International School ended the dominance of Shimraz Shahil of Alethea International School two weeks ago, is dominated by the former.

Important

Coupons will run for 26 weeks in the Sunday Times, the two English dailies, the Daily Mirror and DailyFT, and the two Sinhala dailies, Daily Lankadeepa and Ada with the final week set from July 2. 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 23 of digital voting was monitored and approved by auditors Pricewaterhouse Cooper. Gimhana Dhanushka Nipuna Ransika Methushan Thilina Suminda Lakshan Raveen Yasas Hirusha Mendis Tissara Dilshan Shrushee Adhishtana

International Schools

Tariq Haniff Shimraz Shahil .......... 130 ................. 98 .................. 84 ................ 53 ............... 44 .................. 32 .......... 8 ....... 1 522 463 1. Sisil Vijitha, 129F, Abanvita, Gampaha, 2. T. Seneviratne, 99, New Road, Kottawa, Pannipitiya, 3. Lal Wijekulasuriya, 8A, Flower Road, Colombo 7, 4. W. de Silva, 320/10/1, Rathnarama Road, Hokandara North