Last year’s winner Bhanuka Rajapaksa captains Sri Lanka U-19 team

By Jihan RIZA

CRICKET: Sri Lanka’s first and the premier schools cricket awards ceremony has once again lived up to its mark of producing national stars.

Last year’s Observer-Mobitel Schoolboy Cricketer of the Year, Bhanuka Rajapaksa has been appointed to lead Sri Lanka Under-19 Team for the forthcoming home series against England. It was a great honour not only for the former Royal captain and aggressive batsman but also for the Observer-Mobitel Schoolboy Cricketer of the Year event which has produced champions of the champions for over three decades.

The mega awards show which recognises the most outstanding schoolboy cricketers first brought the then Royal captain Ranjan Madugalle into limelight by honouring him as the Observer Schoolboy Cricketer of the Year in 1979. Subsequently, the stylish middle-order batsman went on to captain NCC and Sri Lanka with distinction. On his retirement from international cricket, Madugalle was nominated to the ICC panel of Match Referees and is now functioning as the Chief ICC Match Referee.

Apart from Madugalle, most of the past award winners have gone a long journey in their cricketing careers, ultimately ending as Sri Lanka cricketers. The galaxy of such stars include Sri Lanka’s World Cup winning captain Arjuna Ranatunga and the world’s highest wicket taker in Test cricket Muttiah Muralitharan. The Most Valuable Player of the 1996 World Cup tournament Sanath Jayasuriya too had been an Observer Schoolboy Cricketer of the Year outstation category winner.

Rajapaksa on new journey

Similarly, Rajapaksa seems to have embarked on a new journey to emulate those great feats of past Observer Schoolboy Cricketer of the Year award winners. He will now be leading Sri Lanka U-19 at the forthcoming home series against England U-19 which include two four-day Youth Tests and three one-day youth internationals.

The attacking left-handed batsman earlier played at the Under-19 World Cup in New Zealand last year and underlined his class by finishing the leading run-scorer for Sri Lanka with a rich aggregate of 253 runs. He also had an excellent away series against Australia with Sri Lanka U-19 team in 2009, smashing a blistering 154 off 111 balls in a one-day and ended the series as the leading run-getter. He has the makings of another Adam Gilchrist.

Meanwhile, there has been an overwhelming response since the launch of the 33rd Observer-Mobitel Schoolboy Cricketer of the Year Most Popular Contest since last week.

You could now vote for your favourite schoolboy cricketer and make him the most popular star at the Observer-Mobitel Most Popular Schoolboy Cricketer of the Year All-Island and Outstation contests. The voting coupons will be published in

the Sunday Observer and our sister papers Daily News, Dinamina and Thinakaran.

However, the Sunday Observer readers will have an additional bonus voting when using coupons published in the Sunday Observer, which would be counted as two votes. All other coupons published in the Daily News, Dinamina and Thinakaran would be entitled to one vote each. This applies to both the All-Island as well as the Outstation contests.

SLT-Mobitel sponsors

Make sure you promote your favourite schoolboy cricketer from your school and elevate them to storm into the big league. Old boys of some of the leading schools too have shown a keen interest in voting for the top cricketers of their old schools as the enthusiasm gradually increases.

Sri Lanka Telecom Mobitel is the proud sponsor of the Mega Show, making a lavish contribution to reward the most outstanding schoolboy cricketers for the fourth successive year. Incidentally, SLT-Mobitel, the national mobile phone network, is the honoured sponsor of Sri Lanka’s national cricket team which is now making preparations for the forthcoming ICC World Cup to be jointly hosted by India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka from later next month.

Hence, SLT-Mobitel will not only be the principal sponsor of the country’s premier schools cricket awards show but would also become a partner of some of the great feats to be performed by Sri Lanka team in the weeks to come. Sri Lanka cricketers would proudly display the SLT-Mobitel logo in their clothing while to attempt to conquer the pinnacle of world cricket once more.