The prestigious Observer Schoolboy Cricketer of the Year Mega Awards ceremony has gone from strength to strength, since its inception way back in 1979. It has taken a giant leap forward especially during the last decade, largely due to the financial backing of the Sri Lanka Telecom Mobitel. The SLT Mobitel’s alliance with the country’s first-ever school cricket award show has made the outstanding schoolboy cricketers the ultimate winners. Thanks to the SLT Mobitel’s sponsorship since 2008, the standard of the show has been elevated to greater levels with high-quality glittering trophies to higher prize money.
A school cricketer’s dream
Winning the prestigious Observer-Mobitel Schoolboy Cricketer of the Year title is the dream of every schoolboy cricketer, considering the great achievements of the past winners. What if a schoolboy cricketer could achieve this rare honour twice? Well, that would undoubtedly be recorded as a milestone achievement in local school cricket.
Interestingly, only six schoolboy cricketers have achieved this rare honour of winning the coveted award on two occasions – five of them in successive years while one after a two years’ gap. The first cricketer to perform this miraculous achievement was Sri Lanka’s world cup-winning captain Arjuna Ranatunga.
As a schoolboy cricketer from Ananda, he first won the prestigious only in its second awards ceremony in 1980 after Ranjan Madugalle. Two years later Ranatunga, as the then captain of the Ananda College team, won the Observer Schoolboy Cricketer Award once again in 1982.
That was the turning point in Ranatunga’s illustrious career and the humble beginning of the legendary Sri Lanka cricketer. Subsequently, he had the rare honour of leading the Sri Lanka national team which emerged champions at the 1996 World Cup tournament, beating Australia by seven wickets in the final play in Lahore on March 17, 1996.
The second in the list of outstanding stars who had won the Observer Schoolboy Cricketer of the Year award twice is former Nalanda captain Roshan Mahanama.
In fact, he became the first to win the Observer Schoolboy Cricketer of the Year title on successive years, performing this Herculean task in 1983 and 1984.
Since stepping into the national team as a top schoolboy cricketer, Mahanama became a vital ingredient in the national team in next to no time.
Apart from the duo, only Thilan Samaraweera (1994 and 1995), Lahiru Peiris (2004 and 2005), Bhanuka Rajapaksa (2010 and 2011) and Charith Asalanka (2015 and 2016) have won the Observer Schoolboy Cricketer of the Year top award twice.
The last of those six rare occasions was witnessed last year when Richmond’s emerging hero Asalanka won the title for the second successive occasion last year.
Sri Lanka’s first and the most prestigious school cricket award show will be held for the 39th consecutive year, continuing the rich traditions maintained by the country’s flagship English newspaper, the Sunday Observer.
Right from its inception in 1979, at a time there had been no formal inter-school Under-19 tournament or a platform to showcase the most outstanding schoolboy cricketer, the Observer Schoolboy Cricketer of the Year event has rendered a yeoman service in producing some of the top most cricketers that Sri Lanka has gifted to the world arena.
Among the galaxy of Sri Lanka stars who had emerged through the contest to stamp their class in world cricket is Asanka Gurusinha, who could be easily rated as one of the most reliable top order batsmen that the country has ever produced. He is the second Nalandian to win the title after Mahanama.
No comparison
The immense success and soaring popularity of the Observer-Mobitel Schoolboy Cricketer of the Year contest has persuaded some to follow our great initiative and conduct schoolboy cricketer awards shows, but none of them would ever be able to emulate the feats of the Observer-Mobitel Schoolboy Cricketer of the Year contest which continues to maintain its rich traditions.
On the other hand, we are delighted and honoured to see more school cricket award shows emerging because that eventually meets our initial goal. We are happy to see others following the Sunday Observer footsteps as its country’s budding schoolboy cricketers who would ultimately benefit from all these shows.
Hence, the Mother of all Shows - the Observer-Mobitel Schoolboy Cricketer of the Year contest continues for the 39th time, breaking new ground and a talent search for tomorrow’s cricketing heroes.
Make sure to vote for your favourite cricketer from your alma mater in the Observer-Mobitel Most Popular Schoolboy Cricketer of the Year contest 2017 which is conducted under three divisions.
Voting coupons are now appearing in the Lake House national dailies – the Daily News, Dinamina and Thinakaran, apart from the host of the show – the Sunday Observer.