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Monday Sep 23, 2024
Monday, 20 November 2017 00:25 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
Dellon Peiris, the prolific left-arm spinner of S. Thomas’ College, continued to consolidate his hold on the top position of the All-Island Schools category of the Dialog 4G-the Sunday Times Most Popular Schoolboy/Schoolgirl Cricketer of the Year 2018 competition, which reached the end of its seventh week.
Dellon, who took over pole position from St. Peter’s College’s Sachin Silva, further expanded his stranglehold by adding 1,408 votes during the past week.
Presently his count is 3,662, a healthy margin of 1,985 ahead of Sachin, who continues to sit in second position. Sachin added 606 to his existing total, which now moves him up to 1,677. Sachin is pursued by Kavin Peiris of Lumbini College.
Kavin, who managed to gain the lead in the second week of the competition, is at third with a tally of 1,131. Dulaj Bandara of Dharmaraja College remains in fourth position while the second Thomian in contention, Kalana Perera, gained a position to move to fifth with his tally reaching 278. Making his debut two votes behind Kalana is Asel Sigera. 
The competition for the crown in the Emerging Schools category is now turning out to become a home-and-home rival between two cricketers from Ananda Sasthralaya Maha Vidyalaya, Kotte. The incumbent leader Sonara Karunathunga continues his dominance with a tally of 685 while Thimira Malshan, who was third last week, moved up to second position after adding an impressive count of 310 votes, taking his total to 351.
Pulitha Yasas of Sri Sumangala College Panadura had to slide down to third place as a result while two cricketers debut at fourth and fifth positions. They are Denuwan Perera of Carey College and Kenula Gunarathne of St. Aloysius College, Ratnapura.
The third category of the competition - Girls’ Schools – has made impressive progress as Harshitha Samarawickrama of Anula Vidyalaya proved her might with a massive addition of votes during the previous week.
Last week Harshitha was slotted in at second place behind Kaveesha Dilhari of Devapathiraja College, Rathgama, with just 13 votes to her name, but this week the tally skyrocketed to 587, with the addition of 574 combined votes, making her the leader. Kaveesha slid down to second place with Ruwini Nandasena of St. Joseph’s Girls School sitting in third with just a vote to her name.
Coupons will be published in the Sunday Times and will be available throughout the week in the two English dailies, the Daily Mirror and Daily FT, and the two Sinhala dailies, Daily Lankadeepa and Ada, and Sinhala weekend newspaper Deshaya. Coupons will be available for 26 weeks with the deadline set for 5 April 2018. Readers can vote for their favourite schoolboy or schoolgirl cricketer and take them to the winning post during this period.
In addition, votes for the Most Popular Cricketer can be cast through Dialog Axiata’s online voting system (www.dialog.lk/cricket/register).
The digital voting mechanism will follow the 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 at www.dialog.lk/cricket/register until 30 November.
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.
During November, the names of registered players will be released every Wednesday while the cutoff date will be the previous Friday of each week. Online voting will be open until 5 April 2018.
Both coupon votes and online votes will be counted on a weekly basis and the official results will be published every week.
The deadline for coupons will be noon every Thursday while the weekly cutoff for online votes will be noon every Wednesday. Online votes received after the weekly cutoff time will be counted for the next week, while only those coupons numbered for the particular week will be taken into account.
This week’s digital voting count was monitored and approved by auditors PriceWaterHouseCoopers.
