Sri Lanka’s undisputed school cricket awards ceremony – the Observer SLT Mobitel School Cricketers of the Year will hold its 44th selection committee meeting in Colombo on Wednesday (November 2).
All arrangements have been finalised to conduct the grand selection committee meeting to be held at the Galadari Hotel on Wednesday.
The 16-member selection committee, comprising top officials of the Sri Lanka Schools Cricket Association (SLSCA), Sri Lanka Umpires and Scorers Association and its Central and Southern Province Associations will meet to select the 54 award winners, including the 44th Observer SLT Mobitel Schoolboy Cricketer of Year and the Schoolgirl Cricketer of Year.
They will be energized by the batsman.com and its CEO Kumara Gamhewage, who will be the official statistics provider for the Observer SLT Mobitel School Cricketers of Year as well as the SLSCA. Gamhewage has been working with the Sunday Observer ever since he formed the popular website, which gives complete information on school cricket statistics.
Only the Most Popular winners of the 44th Observer SLT Mobitel School Cricketers of the Year have already been found. Dunith Wellalage of St. Joseph’s College emerged the Observer SLT Mobitel Most Popular Schoolboy Cricketer of the Year 2022. Having completed a superb final season for St. Joseph’s, he climbed to the top most level, while still being a 19-plus schoolboy.
When the voting for the most popular contests concluded last month, Wellalage and Chushadi Kaushalya headed the respective Observer SLT Mobitel Most Popular Schoolboy and Schoolgirl Cricketers of the Year 2022 with convincing margins.
Sri Lanka Under-19 skipper Wellalage polled 44,564 votes to head the Observer SLT Mobitel Most Popular Schoolboy of the Year 2022 – 4,567 votes ahead of his closest contender Rusanda Gamage of St. Peter’s College with 39,997 votes.
Chushadi Kaushalya of Dharmapala Vidyalaya polled 40,077 votes to emerge the Observer SLT Mobitel Most Popular Schoolgirl Cricketer of the Year 2022, 3,965 votes ahead of Manudi Nanayakkara of Princess of Wales College Moratuwa. Nanayakkara polled 36,112 votes.
When having a look at the past milestones of the event, it is on record that Gihan Rupasinghe has become the fourth Nalandian to become the Observer Schoolboy Cricketer of the Year. Rupasinghe – thus joined the select band when he won the richest prize in school cricket in 2006.
His alma mater - Nalanda Vidyalaya, has been a prominent educational institution not only academically but also in sports. Nalanda’s progress in sports has been mainly in cricket, producing some of the leading cricketers that the country has been lucky to have.
The first-ever Observer Schoolboy Cricketer produced by Nalanda was none other than Roshan Mahanama, a unique cricketer who later excelled for Sri Lanka and also served as a reputed ICC Match Referee. After Mahanama won the Observer Schoolboy Cricketer of the Year title in two successive years in 1983 and 1984, it was won by his schoolmate Asanka Gurusinha the very next year 1985.
In 1989, Nalanda produced yet another champion cricketer when Kumara Dharmasena emerged Observer Schoolboy Cricketer of the Year in 1989. After producing three of the greats – Mahanama, Gurusinha and Dharmasena, the fourth Nalandian to become the Observer Schoolboy Cricketer of the Year was Rupasinghe who won the richest prize in school cricket in 2006.
Rupasinghe Jayawardene Mudiyanselage Gihan Madushanka Rupasinghe was born on March 5, 1986 at Wathupitiwala.
A product of Nalanda, Rupasinghe has a reputation in the domestic circuit for being a big hitter, coming into bat in the middle order. He was the second-highest scorer for Tamil Union in the Premier League tournament in 2008-09 and his first-class returns that season - 945 runs at 52.50 - drew the attention of the selectors.
He was elevated to the Sri Lanka ‘A’ team and scored two half-centuries in the unofficial Tests against Pakistan ‘A’ at home. He then made it to Sri Lanka’s T20 national squad against the touring New Zealand national side.
Rupasinghe was a member of Thilina Kandamby-led Sri Lanka ‘A’ that toured South Africa. The squad had experienced bowlers in Rangana Herath, Malinga Bandara, Dilruwan Perera, Dammika Prasad, Sujeewa de Silva, Chanaka Welagedara and Ishara Amerasinghe.
The youngsters picked were fast bowler Suranga Lakmal, left-arm spinner Gihan Rupasinghe, Angelo Mathews and Tharanga Paranavithana, who was the leading run-getter in the Premier League Tournament Tier A in 2007-08. Kandamby was the second-highest run-scorer behind Paranavithana and both were part of the Sinhalese Sports Club side that won the title. Kaushal Silva was the wicketkeeper of the squad.
Apart from winning the Observer Schoolboy Cricketer of the Year main title in 2006, Rupasinghe also became the best all rounder in the same year. He captained Nalanda First XI team in 2006.
He played for the Sri Lanka Schools under-17 team at the Asian Schools Cricket Tournament held in Sri Lanka in 2002 and toured with the Sri Lanka under-19 cricket team to Pakistan in 2005.
He was also included in the Sri Lanka Under-19 team for the Youth World Cup in 2004.
Rupasinghe is the 30th Twenty20 International ‘cap’ for Sri Lanka. He made his T20 International debut on September 2, 2009 against New Zealand. He has played 97 first class matches, scoring 4,908 runs.
The Observer SLT Mobitel Schoolboy Cricketer of the Year has always produced players for the Sri Lanka national team right from the inaugural Test team.
There is no exception this time around with the cream of the world’s top teams clashing for honours at the ICC World Cup T20 tournament currently being played in Australia.
Kusal Mendis, has won the Observer SLT Mobitel Schoolboy Cricketer of the Year in 2013 when he was leading Prince of Wales College, Moratuwa. Mendis has been an important part of the Lankan team since his school career.
Mendis blossomed through the age-group system and in next to no time, he became one of the most promising young batsmen in the world. He had played only 16 first-class innings before he made his Test debut at the age of 20 and had hit only one first-class hundred before he made a maiden Test century - 176 against Australia at Pallekele, in a short time after his glory at the Mega Show.
Meanwhile, the 44th edition of the Observer SLT Mobitel School Cricketers of the Year will be sponsored by SLT Mobitel for the 15th consecutive year.
The Observer SLT Mobitel School Cricketers of the Year contest has a rich history of producing legendary cricketers, including Chief ICC Match Referee Ranjan Madugalle, Sri Lanka’s World Cup-winning captain Arjuna Ranatunga, world’s highest Test wicket taker Muttiah Muralidaran, Most valuable player of 1996 triumph Sanath Jayasuriya and the former ICC Match Referee Roshan Mahanama.
Winning the Observer SLT Mobitel School Cricketers of the Year title has been the dream of every school cricketer as they generally believe that the prestigious title would take them closer to sporting the Sri Lanka ‘cap’. Most past winners of the Observer Schoolboy Cricketer of the Year title had made their Sri Lanka debut quickly. Some of them made it to the Sri Lanka team just months after winning the ‘crown’.
In recent years, there are five past Observer SLT Mobitel Schoolboy Cricketer of the Year main award winners who have shown their might in the Sri Lanka team - Dinesh Chandimal (2009), Bhanuka Rajapakse (twice in 2010 and 2011), Niroshan Dickwella (2012), Kusal Mendis (2013) and Charith Asalanka (twice in 2015 and 2016).
SLT Mobitel has played a key role in the promotion of the Schoolboy Cricketer of the Year during the past 15 years.
Under the dynamic leadership of Sri Lanka Telecom Group Chairman Rohan Fernando who has played a key role in promoting school cricket in a big way.
Chairman of Lake House and Secretary to the Ministry of Media, Anusha Palpita and Director Editorial of ANCL, Sisira Paranathanthri have always teamed up well to march towards the success of the event.