Changes in the middle in all three categories
Notable changes occurred in all three categories of the Dialog 4G-the Sunday Times Most Popular Schoolboy Cricketer of the Year 2019 contest, as its 15th week came to a close. While the three leaders remain unchanged in the All-Island, Emerging and Girls' schools categories, three new entrants each made their way in to the contest.
The All-Island Schools segment is still comfortably led by Navod Paranavithana of Mahinda College, as he further expanded the lead to 4679 from Sukhitha Manoj of St. Sebastian's College Moratuwa.
Yasitha Samararathne of Dharmaraja College and Pasindu Ushetti of Maris Stella College made notable progress from the middle of the list while Supun Sumanarathne of Maliyadeva College debuted at 14th position with 72 votes. Yasitha moved up a position from seventh while Pasindu reached the eighth position from 13th. Shevon Daniel of St. Joseph's College made a slight progress by earning four places from the bottom.
Vishal Nagasena of St. Peter's Gampaha, continues his dominance in the Emerging Schools category for yet another week while Lithija Kalhara of Ananda Maithree NS Balangoda and Tanusha Sandaruwan of St. John's College Nugegoda continue to follow steadily. The list expanded to six with the inclusion of Avishka Lakshan of Kalutara Vidyalaya.
Sathya Sadeepani of Devapathiraja College Rathgama remains as leader of the Girls' Schools category, which
All-Island Schools
was introduced to the ever popular competition in the country last season. But the competition takes a new turn with star player and the leader's team mate Kaveesha Dilhari debuting at No.2 with 74 votes. Sithmi Nirasha of Anula Vidyalaya had to move to the bottom after Nimesha Tharuni of Marapola MV, Minuwangoda gained some votes.
Coupons will be published in the Sunday Times, the two English dailies, the Daily Mirror and DailyFT, and the two Sinhala dailies, Daily Lankadeepa and Ada and Sinhala Weekend, Deshaya. From this year coupons will also come will out in the TamilMirror.
In addition Dialog Axiata's online voting system through their official Online Portal to vote for the Most Popular Cricketer (www.dialog.lk/ cricket), is now alive.
Players who have represented their respective school in First XI cricket and with a tally of 400 or above runs or 25 wickets or above in the last season are automatically eligible for the Dialog 4G-the Sunday Times Most Popular Schoolboy Cricketer of the Year 2019 competition. Schools have been categorised under three categories -- the AllIsland, Emerging and Girls schools, according to the segmentation process of Sri Lanka School Cricket Association.