Dellon consolidates his position
S. Thomas' College leg- spinner Dellon Peiris continues his dominance in the All-Island Schools as the Dialog 4G- the Sunday Times Most Popular Schoolboy/ Schoolgirl Cricketer of the Year 2018 competition reaches its ninth week. Dellon added 1377 combined votes -- from online voting and coupons -as he took his total to 6246 by the end of the week.
This is a clear lead of 3449 from Sachin Silva of St. Peter's College, who was not that impressive during the ended week, in comparison to the progress of Dellon.
Sachin, however, added 609 combined votes, mainly through online to remain at second spot for yet another week.
Ananda College skipper Asel Sigera, gradually took hold of the third position from Kavin Peiris by just adding up 85 online votes during the week. His tally is now 1287, while Kavin drops down to the fourth position with a tally of 1229. The difference of 58 votes between the two, could lead to a healthy run for the battle for third place and even above. Dharamaraja College's Dulaj Bandara remains at fifth position ahead of Kalana Perera of S. Thomas' College. Mahesh Theekshana debuts at seventh position with 155 votes, solely received through online and with the inclusion of Methushan Thilina of D. S. Senanayake College, the number of contenders in the All- Island Schools reach 19.
The stronghold of Ananda Sasthralaya cricketer Sonara Karunathunga in the Emerging Schools category is in jeopardy, with the rise of Denuwan Perera of Carey College, who raced from fourth to second position. Sonara added 505 votes to his tally, which now reads as 1491 votes, but the speedy progress of Denuwan and the
Online Registration extended to December 31
Coupons will be published from October 1 in the Sunday Times and it will follow throughout the week in the two English dailies, the Daily Mirror and DailyFT, and the two Sinhala dailies, Daily Lankadeepa and Ada and Sinhala Weekend, Deshaya. Coupons will run for 26 weeks with the deadline set for April 5, 2018. Readers could vote for their favourite schoolboy or schoolgirl cricketer and take them to the winning post during this period.
Dialog Axiata's online voting system through their official Online Portal to vote for the Most Popular Cricketer (www. dialog.lk/cricket), came alive on October 1 with player registrations. The online registration process ended on November 30, but with greater demand, registrations will be extended until December 31. Players who wish to enter the fray will have to confirm their participation by registering online with -- www. dialog.lk/cricket/register. Even schoolboy cricketers whose names are entered into the competition by readers must register before that deadline.
The names of players who deficit of 182 votes, could give him a worried mind in the weeks to come. Denuwan becomes the most voted schoolboy online for the concluded week and that could give an early indication of his intentions.
As a result, Sonara's team mat e, Thimira Malshan had to move down to third, despite adding 373 combined votes. Kenula Gunarathne of St. Aloysius Ratnapura, too had to move down a place to fourth position, but his progress too, of 403 combined votes, was remarkable. registered online will be officially scrutinised of their eligibility and entered to the online voting mechanism, while the customary voting through coupons will be still on. The Online Portal is open for voting while online registration will be accepted up to December 31. The names of registered players will be released weekly, every Friday after the cutoff date of Wednesday for weekly scrutinising, each week until the deadline. Online voting will be open until April 5, 2018.
Both coupon votes and online votes will be counted on a weekly basis and the official results published every week beginning next Sunday in the five newspapers and its websites.
The deadline for COUPONS will be every Thursday Noon while the weekly cutoff for ONLINE VOTES will be every Wednesday Noon. Online Votes received after the weekly cutoff time will be counted for the next week, while for Coupons, ONLY those numbered for the particular week will be taken into count. This week's digital voting count was monitored and approved by auditors Pricewaterhouse Cooper.
Harshitha Samarawickrama of Anula Vidyalaya, remains at the top position in the Girls' Category, while maintaining her lead with a healthy count of 1485 votes. Her addition for the concluded week was 666 combined votes. She may find a close rival in Pabasara Ranabahu of Rathnavali Girls' School, Gampaha, who gained the best income with 775 combined votes, to take her tally to 778 and second position, within the second week of her debut. But the deficit of 707 could still put Harshitha in a comfortable zone. Kaveesha Dilhani of D ev a p a t h i r a j a M V, Rathgama and Ruwini Nandasena of St. Joseph's Girls' School are the other two contenders in the list.