Former two-time winner of the Sunday Observer School Cricketer of the Year contest and ex-Sri Lanka cricket captain Arjuna Ranatunga will be the chief guest at the 43rd Observer-SLT Mobitel School Cricketer of the Year grand finale at the BMICH on December 14, commencing at 5.15 pm.
The event is sponsored by SLT-Mobitel for the 15th successive year. Ex-Cabinet Minister Ranatunga who won the prestigious Observer Schoolboy Cricketer of the Year titles in 1980 and 1982, is best remembered for leading Sri Lanka to win the 1996 Cricket World Cup tournament.
The 43rd Observer-SLT Mobitel Most Popular School Cricketer of the Year contest is on for the final week. Final voting coupons to pick the most popular schoolboy and schoolgirl cricketers will appear in today’s Sunday Observer, followed by all five days of the week until Friday, December 10 in the Daily News, Dinamina and Thinakaran newspapers. Voting will close at 12 noon on Saturday, December 11.
Dunith Wellalage of St. Joseph’s College and W.P. Nimesha Tharuni of Marapola MV lead in the penultimate weekend of the Most Popular Schoolboy and Schoolgirl contests. Shadisha Rajapakse of Royal who led in last week’s voting has now been pushed to second place. But only a slim 118 votes separates the two and anything could happen when voting closes in five days.
Wellalage leads in the Most Popular Schoolboy Cricketer contest with 20,167 votes followed by Rajapakse (20,049 votes), Asen Bandara (St. Anthony’s, Kandy - 17,451) and Ramith de Silva (Nalanda - 12,307).
Nimesha Tharuni remained in the lead of the Most Popular Schoolgirl Cricketer contest, extending her vote count to 14,204. She has strengthened her lead over second-placed D. Chushadi Kaushalya of Dharmapala Vidyalaya, Pannipitiya who polled 10,076 votes. In third place is Nethmi Poorna of Wadduwa Central (8,614) followed by Vishmi Guneratne of Ratnavali BMV Gampaha with 6,321 votes.