Dialog Sri Lanka Cricket Awards to take place in September

From left: Sri Lanka Vice Captain Dinesh Chandimal, Sri Lanka Captain Angelo Mathews, SLC Secretary Mohan De Silva, Dialog Axiata General Manager Brand and Media Harsha Samaranayake and SLC CEO Ashley De Silva - Pic by Indraratne Balasuriya

The 2016 Dialog Sri Lanka Cricket Awards will take place on 21 September, it was announced yesterday, with Sri Lanka Cricket set to fete their men’s and women’s cricketers for their accomplishments both domestically and internationally at a grand ceremony at the Waters Edge, Colombo. 

This is the eighth consecutive year that the awards are being held and the fourth year in which it is being sponsored by Dialog. 

The awards will take into consideration performances during the 2015 calendar year for the period 1 January-31 December. The highlight of the evening will be the Dialog Cricketer of the Year award, which has been won by Angelo Mathews for the last two years running. Asked if he might make it a hat-trick of awards, Mathews said: “I don’t really know, you must look at the stats for the last calendar year. I haven’t really kept track of it. But whoever who wins it, we’ll all be excited for him.”

Another coveted award will be the ‘Emerging Cricketer of the Year’ award. Last year it was won by Kusal Janith Perera, while the year before Niroshan Dickwella took home the prize. Recent performances by Kusal Mendis and Dhananjaya De Silva would have the two as frontrunners in most fans’ minds. However, as only performances from 2015 will be taken into consideration the duo’s recent exploits against Australia will not be considered until next year’s awards ceremony.

SLC CEO Ashley De Silva acknowledged that while this anomaly could be resolved by having the performance selection period for the year fall between awards ceremonies, it was difficult to have the awards at a set date due to the uncertain nature of the team’s travel and tour schedule.

“Sometimes we might have the awards ceremony in August or even July. It depends on the availability of the team. So we feel the best way is to look at it from the start of a calendar year to the end of it,” explained De Silva.

The awards will also see domestic cricketers celebrated awards on offer performances in the Premier League and Premier League Limited over Tournaments, Sara League, Under 23 and Men’s and Women’s divisions and the Donovan Andree tournaments, with awards being handed out to umpires as well.

“Appreciating and recognising someone’s hard work and talent I think is very important. For domestic players it gives you that extra boost and motivation going forward,” said Captain Angelo Mathews of the importance of the awards to the players.

As in previous years, the Dialog People’s Player of the Year will be chosen by the fans, who are encouraged to vote as many times as they want via SMS by typing DPP <space> the name of your favourite cricketer and sending to 2343. Messages will cost Rs. 2.50 per SMS and there are no restrictions on mobile carriers.

Fans can also vote online by logging on to www.cricketawards.online to send in their votes, or they can visit Dialog’s Facebook page and vote by simply liking a picture of their preferred player in an album featuring the 16 nominees. Online votes are limited to one vote per person. However, fans can vote for as many players as they like. Voting will be open to the public from 12.00 p.m. onwards on 24 August to 12.00 midnight on 20 September 2016.

Dialog Axiata, the sponsor of the Sri Lanka cricket team, said that it was privileged to once again power the cricket awards as part of its effort to recognise and empower local talent from the grassroots to the national and international stage. Dialog is a long-standing and strategic partner of Sri Lanka Cricket.