Top flight entertainment will glitter OBSERVER-BATA Show

By A. C. de Silva and Leslie Fernando

CRICKET AWARDS: Top musical fare will illuminate the 29th Observer - Bata Schoolboy Cricketer of the Year awards ceremony to be held on August 9 from 6.15 p.m. onwards at the BMICH.

A whole lot of cricketers who fared prominently in the past school cricket season with both bat and ball will get awards in the Observer-Bata Schoolboy Cricketer of the Year Main Contest, Outstation Schoolboy Cricketer of the Year and there will be a host of winners in other sectional contests at a show that is bound to be remembered for a long, long time.

Right at the top - the chief quest at the show this year is a former cricketer who needs little or no introduction - Sidath Wattimuny, who was a star-class opening batsman in his day and he used to be the talk of the town whenever he played for the country with the top cricketers in other countries.

Mr. Raphaeal Mollo, Managing Director of Bata Shoe Company and Mrs. Mollo and Mr. Bandula Padmakumara - Chairman and Managing Director of Associated Newspapers of Ceylon Limited and Mrs. Samanmalie Padmakumara will be the guests of honour.

Any show must have top-drawyer entertainment to make it lively and there will be top-flight music to be dished out by ULTIMATE with guest performances by Sunil Perera of Gypsies fame and Ronnie Leitch with host of others too. Popular compere Brian Thomas will be in charge of the mike and with all his experience behind him, he is certain to keep the large crowd entertained with his catchy anecdotes too.

A unique happening has taken place in the selections this year. Malith Gunatilleke - the Ananda skipper who was picked as the Schoolboy Cricketer of the Year by the special panel of cricket umpires, was also voted in by Sunday Observer readers as the Most Popular Schoolboy Cricketer of the year 2007. In addition to the two top awards, Gunatilleke has also been picked as the Best All-rounder in the All-Island Contest.

The Observer-Bata Schoolboy Cricketer of the Year Contest has brought out the best cricketers for the awards. When Batas took over the sponsorship of the contest in 1979, the first winner was Ranjan Modugalle of Royal College, who went on to captain Sri Lanka and is now the Chief Match Referee of the International Cricket Conference. 1980 saw Arjuna Ranatunga of Ananda the winner. He too went to captain Sri Lanka and he had the proud distinction of being Sri Lanka's World Cup winning captain in 1996. Ranatunga also won the award again in 1982.

Roshan Mahanama of Nalanda won the top award in 1983 and 1984 and Mahanama is also in the elite panel of International? Match Raferees. Sanjeewa Ranatunga - Arujna's younger brother won in 1988. Marvan Atapattu also of Ananda and one-time Sri Lanka skipper won the award in 1990 and the world famous Muttiah Maralitharan - the off-spinner with the magic touch, won the award when played for St. Anthony's College, Katugastota in 1991.

In recent times, Farveez Maharoof of Wesley College who is going great guns in pace bowling in the Sri Lanka team, won the award in 2003.

The popularity of the Observer-Bata Contests has been so great that more crickters will be forthcoming in the years to come who are bound to don Sri Lanka cap.

Ranga tops Outstation

The Observer-Bata Outstation Schoolboy Cricketer of the Year is Ranga Cooray of Holy Cross College, Kalutara. He also wins award for the Best Batsman and Best All-rounder. The sponsors have decided to give a special award to Kegalu Vidyalaya - the Best Outstation Cricket Team. They have fared exceptionally well during the 2007 school cricket season. Besides the awards for schoolboy cricketer of the Year and Outstation Schoolboy cricketer of the Year, there are the sectional awards for cricketers in the All-Island category and those who come from the Outstation.

Then there are awards for cricketers who have been voted in by Observer readers for the Observer-Bata Most Popular Schoolboy Cricketer of the Year and Most Popular Outstation Schoolboy Cricketer of the Year.

The observer-Bata and other allied contests have been held for 28 years without a break and these contests are eagerly looked forward to and they serve as incentives for the Year.

Bata's Factory Manager, Maheel Senaratne has been working round the clock to see that this historic show goes off without any mishaps and informs all schools that their ticket quotas have been posted to the schools and to collect them. However he wishes to state that any school that have not received their tickets to contact him at Bata Shoe Company at Ratmalana. Telephone : O777-380109.

All Island Contest

Best Batsman: P.K.J.R.N. Nonis (De Mazenod College,) Runner-up: Angelo Mathew (St. Joseph's College)

Best Bowler: I. A. R. Laksiri (D. S. Senanayake College), Runner-up: Lakshan Rodrigo (St. Peter's College).

Best Fielder: S. M. Wijesiri (St. Joseph's College), Runner-up: L. D. Chandimal (Ananda).

Best All-rounder: Malith Gunatileka (Ananda) Runner-up: T. M. U. S. Karunaratne (Thurstan College)

Schoolboy Cricketer of the Year:Malith Gunatileka (Ananda) Runner-up P. K. J. R. Nonis (De Mazenod College).

Best Captain: Lahiru Peiris (St. Peter's College)

Outstation Contest

Best Batsman: Ranga Cooray (Holy Cross College, Kalutara) Runner-up: R.A.N. Ranasinghe (Ibbagamuwa Central)

Best Bowler: Janaka Sampath (Royal Horana) Runner-up: S.P.L.O. Pathirana (Kegalu Vidyalaya).

Best Fielder: K. N. R. Madusanka (St. Anne's College) Runner-up: J. A. A. Jayasinghe (Kegalu Vidyalaya).

Best All-rounder: Ranga Cooray (Holy Cross College) Runner-up: R.S. Tennakoon (Kegalu Vidyalaya)

Schoolboy Cricketer of the Year:Ranga Cooray (Holy Cross College) Runner-up: Janaka Sampath (Royal Horana)

Best Teams

All-Island: St. Joseph's College. Runner-up: St. Peter's College

Central Province: Dharmaraja College. Runner-up: St. Sylvester's College

Southern Province: Revatha Mv. Runner-up: Richmond College

Outstation Best School: Kegalu Vidyalaya

Best-up-and-Coming-Team: Royal, Horana

Most Popular Schoolboy Cricketer All-Island: Malith Gunatileka (Ananda) 35,130 votes. Runner-up: Rajeeva Weerasinghe (St. Joseph's College) 26,651 votes.

Most Popular Schoolboy Cricketer Outstation: Lahiru Pathirana (Kegalu Vidyalaya) 23,208 votes. Runner-up Sarinda Abeyratne (Bandaranayake College Gampaha)