Lakshina Rodrigo of St.Peter’s College Bambalapitiya took the lead in the division 1 school category in the first week’s count at the Sunday Observer/ Mobitel Schoolboy Cricketer Of The year 2017 contest.
Rodrigo a prolific scorer in the school cricket season and the Peterite skipper polled in 1168 votes to Avishka Fernando of St.Sebastian’s College, Moratuwa who had 546 votes.
In division 11 Raveen Yasas of Devapathiraja College, Ratgama was placed first with 362 votes and Dilum Sudara m of Karandeniya CC was placed second polling 298 votes.
Charith Basnayake of Bandarawela CC took the top spot in the division 111 schools with 228 votes. Over 200 schools will vye for honours at this year’s 39th Sunday Observer /Mobitel Schoolboy Cricketer Of The Year contest 2017 which has already begun. Unlike in the past where the contest was held as National awards ,platinum,gold and Silver this year the format has been changed to National the main award followed by Divisions 1, 11 and 111. In division one there are 36 schools, in division 11 31 schools and the most number of schools 150 in division 111 will be played in two segments.
Irrespective of the groups or divisions the players from the outstation have shown a lot of promise in the recent ;past than the schools from the metropolis.
There is no doubt that the contest will encourage more and more players to surface and gain national honours.
The two most recent winners of the contest Kusal Mendis (Prince Of Wales) and Niroshan Dickwella (Trinity) both have proved how useful they are. Mendis seems to be the steadier of the two and Dickwella have proved beyond doubt what a stroke maker he has been since he had left school.
First week’s voting.
