Online portal is now opened to the public
The online portal of the Dialog 4G-the Sunday Times Most Popular Schoolboy / Schoolgirl Cricketer of the Year 2018 competitions -- www.dialog.lk/cricket -- is now open to the public to vote for their favourite Schoolboy/ Schoolgirl Cricketer. As that development takes place, last week's prediction became factual when S. Thomas' College all-rounder Dellon Peiris dethroned Sachin Silva of St. Peter's College, to take top spot in the All-Island Schools segment.
Dellon, one of the top performers in the ongoing Singer Schools Under-19 Division I Cricket Tournament, obtained 402 votes during the week ended, enabled him reach the top with a tally of 615. An overwhelming lead of 326 over Sachin .
Sachin received 18 votes for the week, and totaled 289 votes, which was woefully insufficient to remain at the top. Kavin Peiris of Lumbini College remains at 3rd position, while Dharmaraja College's Dulaj Bandara remains at No.4. Kalana Perera, the second Thomian in the list, is at 5th with 75 votes. By this week the list of competitors had stretched to 16.
In the Emerging Schools segment, Sonara Karunathunga of Ananda Sasthralaya Kotte, toppled Pulitha Yasas of Sri Sumangala College Panadura. Pulitha remained in the lead for 4 weeks running, but had to concede his stronghold to Sonara, who received 64 votes during the week, to total 155. Pulitha could add only 7 to his total, to reach 116 now. The deficit between the two is 39 votes.
The newly introduced Girls' Schools category kicked off last week with Kaveesha Dilhari of Devapathiraja College Rathgama, coming into the stream. She remains to be the sole contestant to date.
Players who have represented their respective schools in 1st XI Cricket and scored 400 runs or more or, have taken 25 wickets or more in the last season, will automatically qualify for the Dialog 4G-the Sunday Times Most Popular Schoolboy Cricketer of the Year 2018 competition. the Schools have been separated into three categories- All-Island, Emerging and Girls Schools, according to the segmentation guidelines of the Sri Lanka Schools Cricket Association.
All Schools competing in the ongoing InterSchool Division I tournament will be grouped under the All-Island Schools, while the remaining schools, competing under Division II and III, will come under Emerging Schools. The 32 Girls schools will come under the Girls category. This method will apply to the selections as well as for the Most Popular Schoolboy/Schoolgirl Cricketer.
Coupons are published from October 1 in the Sunday Times and continue 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 till April 5, 2018. Readers could vote for their favourite Schoolboy/ Schoolgirl Cricketer and take them to the winning post during this period.
In addition, Dialog Axiata's online voting system, through their official Online Portal, to vote for the Most Popular Cricketer (www. dialog.lk/cricket/register), came online from October 1 with player registrations. The digital voting mechanism will have its usual procedure as last season, where all players must register online. Players who wish to enter the fray will have to confirm their participation by registering online with -- www.dialog.lk/ cricket/register -- from October 1-November 30. Even Schoolboy Cricketers whose names are entered into the competition by readers, must register before that deadline. To validate their registration, players should also be registered under the Sri Lanka Schools Cricket Association (SLSCA), with a valid registration number. Players without a valid registration from SLSCA will not be included in any category of the 'Most Popular' competition. The decision of the Sports Editor of the Sunday Times will be final.
Names of players who registered online during October, were officially scrutinised of their eligibility and entered into the online voting mechanism from Nov.1, while the customary voting through coupons will be ongoing. From November 1, the Online Portal will be open for voting while online registration will be still accepted up to November 30. During the month of November, the names of registered players will be released weekly, every Wednesday, while the cutoff date for weekly scrutinising will be the previous Friday of each week. Online voting will be open from November 1-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 Thursday Noon, while the weekly cutoff for ONLINE VOTES will be Wednesday noon. Online Votes received after the weekly cutoff time will be counted for the following week, while for Coupons, ONLY those numbered for the particular week will be taken into count.