Now Muzammil hounds Jaleel for top slot

Since last week Wesley College allrounder Basith Muzammil has turned out to be a newsmaker. Muzammil made a sudden entry at fourth position last week and the 34th Bata-the Sunday Times Most Popular Schoolboy Cricketer of the Year 2013 competition completed its 17th week Muzammil continues to bring a new dimension of excitement to the contest. With what has taken place over the past two weekends it looks as if the incumbent leader, Minhaj Jaleel of Thurstan College will definitely face unforeseen challenges.

For a start, Muzammil has managed to outnumber Dushan Hemantha of St. Peter’s College and A.K. Tyron of Richmond College by a huge margin and snatch the second slot. The amount of votes Muzammil received during last week was a record 8876, the highest obtained by any competitor so far in a week. In two weeks he has amassed 11376 and is 10877 behind the leader Jaleel, who received 1425 votes during the past week. With three more weeks to go, it seems as if Muzammil, if he maintains his current pace, could create a sensational upset.

Lahiru Vimukthi of Sri Sumangala Panadura lost his standard pace as Sanju Sharuk of Vidyaloka Vidyalaya Galle picked up momentum to remain comfortably as the leader of the Emerging Schools category. Vimukthi still remains at second place, 688 votes behind the leader as the promise he showed to outclass the leader vanished. Others in the category remain at their respective slots from the previous week.

The International Schools category leader, Walid Jiffry of Leighton Park, who was somewhat threatened by Sashika Rathnathilake of Lyceum Nugegoda, put all doubts aside by speeding up his march. Last week Walid obtained 3016 votes which took his tally to 16162, a clear deficit of 6658 votes ahead of Sashika. Sashika received 555 votes as his tally reached 9504.

Coupons for the 34th Bata-the Sunday Times Schoolboy Cricketer of the Year 2013 competition will appear in Wijeya Newspapers’ dailies- the Daily Mirror and Lankadeepaand also in its weekend English publication, the Sunday Times. Readers will be able to send in as many coupons as they wish in favour of their favourite schoolboy cricketer until the deadline on May 30.