Sadisha Rajapakse of Royal College, Colombo 7 and W.P. Nimesha Tharuni of Marapola MV, Veyangoda have been voted the Observer-SLT Mobitel Most Popular School Cricketers of the Year. Rajapaksa, who top scored with 66 runs off 77 balls with seven boundaries and captured 2 wickets for 17 runs for Sri Lanka under-19 in their fifth and final Youth One Day International against the touring England under-19 team at the SSC grounds on Friday, polled 21,000 votes in the final week’s voting which concluded yesterday.
Rajapakse polled 42,832 votes to finish with a clear lead over second-placed Asen Bandara of St. Anthony’s, Kandy who polled 31,988 votes. In third place with 25,207 votes was Dunith Wellalage of St. Joseph’s, ahead of Ramith de Silva of Nalanda - 17,781.
Nimesha Tharuni, who finished the season recently with 142.00 with a top score of 137 against Wickremashila MV, Giriulla, took the most popular crown for the second successive year polling 20,186 votes. D. Chushadi Kaushalya of Dharmapala MV, Pannipitiya finished second with 13,572, followed by Nethmi Poorna of Wadduwa Central who polled 10,166 votes.
The stage is set for the 43rd Observer-SLT Mobitel School Cricketer of the Year Grand Finale at the BMICH on Tuesday, December 14 at 5.15 p.m.
Sri Lanka’s world cup-winning captain Arjuna Ranatunga will be the chief guest, along with his wife Samadara who are no strangers to the Observer School Cricketer of the Year competition. Ranatunga, the second cricketer to win the top award, is also the first ever to win the Observer Schoolboy Cricketer award twice, in 1980 and 1982.
See page 16 for details and page 23 for the final voting results.