Harshitha of Anula Vidyalaya is still the most popular
Dialog 4G-the Sunday Times Most Popular Schoolboy/schoolgirl Cricketer of the Year 2018
Thomian Dellon Peiris continues to lead the pack in the All-island Schools category as the Dialog 4G-the Sunday Times Most Popular Schoolboy/schoolgirl Cricketer of the Year 2018 competition reaches the end of 11th week.
Dellon added 1,864 combined votes for the ended week, moving ahead to surpass the milestone of 10,000 votes.
His count of 10,020 is way far ahead of Sachin Silva of St. Peter’s College, who has a total of 5,069.
Sachin added 1,207 combined votes, but still has not been able to challenge Dellon in a meaningful manner.
The Thomian all-rounder leads by 4,951 votes.
At third place is Ananda College Skipper Asel Sigera, who takes his total to 1,978 after adding 406 combined votes.
Vihan Gunasekara of D. S. Senanayake College makes a major jump by moving to fourth from sixth, after adding 656 combined votes.
His tally is now 1,320 and is ahead of Kavin Peiris of Lumbini College by a small count. The list of the competitors remains at 21 and only the names of players who have obtained over 30 votes will be published from this week.
Denuwan Perera of Carey College made his intentions clear by consolidating the top position of the Emerging Schools category, after adding 1,086 to his count, which now reads as 3,807.
Perera leads Sonara Karunathunga of Ananda Sasthralaya by 1,470 votes and looks well set to move ahead in this fashion.
Sonara meanwhile, added 347 to his existing total which now reaches 2,337. Closely behind him is Kenula Gunarathne of St. Aloysius’ College, Ratnapura.
With a tally of 2,102 and an addition of 761, Kenula lie 235 votes behind Sonara. Thimira Malshan of Ananda Sasthralaya remains at fourth with a tally of 1,954 votes and looks well set to claim the third slot.
Heshan Madushanka of Piliyandala Central is the fifth in line with votes over 1,000.
Harshitha Samarawickrama of Anula Vidyalaya, continues to lead the Girls’ category, maintaining her lead with a healthy count of 3,538.
She added 763 to her tally and leads Pabasara Ranabahu by 1,480. Pabasara, of Rathnavali Girls’ School, Gampaha, added 510 to her tally, which now has reached 2,058.
Kaveesha Dilhani of Devapathiraja MV, Rathgama and Ruwini Nandasena of St. Joseph’s Girls’ School are the other two contenders in the list.
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 from 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.
Names of players who 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 still 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 and ONLINE VOTES will be every Thursday 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 Pricewaterhousecoopers.