St. Patrick’s Jaffna - Best Team in Northern Province:

Nalanda College - Best Behaved Team:

All set for OBSERVER-MOBITEL School Cricket Awards show on September 1

by Leslie FERNANDO

Naveen Kavikara of D. S. Senanayake College is making a strong challenge to take the top slot in the Observer-Mobitel Most Popular Schoolboy Cricketer 2009 All-Island with 15,211 votes in the penultimate coupon in voting.	Krishan Wickremarachchi of Gamini MMV, Bentota leads in the Outstation Contest with 15,553 votes.

CRICKET: The winners of the OBSERVER-MOBITEL Most Popular Schoolboy Cricketer of the Year 2009 All Island and Outstation Contests will be announced on Sunday, August 30. There has been heavy voting in the past few weeks. This is the 31st Observer Schoolboy Cricketer of the Year Contest which started way back in 1978.

There seems to be a hot contest between the front runners in the two competitions. In the All Island Contest it seems to be a home-and-home battle between Naveen Kavikara and Charith Jayampathi of D.S. Senanayake College with Kavikara in front with a slender majority of 48 votes. Kavikara has got 15,211 votes while Charith Jayampathi has got 15,163 votes.

Coupon No. 10 is the final week’s number and it will be published in the Daily News, Dinamina, Thinakran till August 25. Entries close on Wednesday, August 26.

In the Outstation Contest, there is a another close battle between Bentota Gamini MV’s Krishan Wickremarachchi who has got 15,553 votes and leads by 278 votes from S.H. Indunil Kumara of Devapathiraja Vidyalaya, Ratgama who has 15,278.

So, there should be a hot contest in the All Island and Outstation categories in the final week’s voting.

The special selection committees comprising umpires from the Association of Cricket Umpires and Scorers, Sri Lanka Schools Cricket Association, Southern Province Cricket Umpires Association and Central Province Cricket Umpires Association met and on July 28 evaluated the performances of the schoolboys and the selection panel have short-listed their names for the 32 different awards to be made at the Mega Show to be held on September 1 at the BMICH.

The cricket fans and supporters from Northern Province will be happy that St. Patrick’s College, Jaffna will carry away one of the awards at the Mega Show on 1st September for being selected as the Best Team from the Northern Province.

The Panel of Cricket Umpires from the ACUSSL, CPCUA, SPCUA and the controlling body of the Schools Cricket Association unanimously decided to select St. Patrick’s College, Jaffna for their courage and enthusiasm together with their good performances and also to keep the game going despite the difficulties face due to the war situation that prevailed earlier. Cricket has come back to Jaffna and the schoolboys are happy as peace prevails and they are able to continue playing cricket.

St. Patrick’s College team had a fine season winning ten matches against Hartely College, Hindu College, St. John’s College, Stanley College, Telapala Union College, Velythan MV, Nelladi Central College, Vattukota Hindu College, Kopai Hindu College, Vigneswaran College and one match being drawn-it’s the ‘Big Match’ against Jaffna Central, said Fr. Joseph.

N. Mirando, the skipper of St. Patrick’s College said that this year’s team was a well balanced side. “But next season five of our senior players will not be eligible to play after sitting for the ‘A’ Level Examination. Those five places will be filled by up-and-coming under-17 players,” Mirando added.

St. Patrick’s play matches in Jaffna on the matting wickets. “Our problem is that when we face bigger schools in Colombo and Kandy, we have to play on turf wickets.”

The school authorities have plans to have turf wickets for the benefit of the team,” said Fr. Joseph of St. Patrick’s.

Best Behaved Team

For the first time a ‘Best Behaved Team’ was also selected by the Panel of Umpires and School Cricket Authorities. Nalanda College has been selected to receive the new award.

The Chief Executive Officer, Mobitel, Suren Amarasekera was totally in agreement in having an extra award at the Observer-Mobitel Schoolboy Cricketer of the Year Contest 2009 - that’ the award for the ‘Best Behaved Team’.

This was suggested by Ranjan Madugalle, the winner of the inaugural contest who was the chief guest at the 30th Mobitel-Observer Schoolboy Cricketer of the Year Awards Ceremony held last year at the BMICH.

According to Madugalle, the present Chief Match Referee of IOC and Amarasekera this award will be able to inculcate a habit among schoolboys to play the game within the laws.

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[All-Island Contest]

1.	Naveen Kavikara	(D.S. Senanayake College)			15211
2.	Charith Jayampathi	(D.S. Senanayake College)		15163
3.	Angelo Perera	(St. Peter’s College)				13702
4. 	Yasith Abeykoon	(Royal College)					 5709
5	Buwanaka Ekanayake	(Dharmaraja College)			 3912
6.	Isham Ghouse	(Zahira College, Colombo)			 3390
7.	Dinesh Chandimal	(Ananda College)			 2829
8.	Waruna Fernando	(St. Benedict’s College)			 2196
9.	Sahan Palihakkara	(St.Anthony’s Kandy)			 1590
10.	Nishika de Silva	(St. Joseph’s College)		  	 1061

[ Outstation Contest]

1. 	 K. Wickremarachchi 	(Gamini MMV,Bentota)			15553
2.	S.H.Indunil Kumara 	(Devapathiraja Vidyalaya, Ratgama)      15275
3.	Malinda Samarasekera	(Maris Stella College)			 5522
4.	Amila Tillekeratne	(Sri Rahula MV)				 4483
5. 	Shehan Silva	(Joseph Vaz College)				 3275
6.	Zakir Hussain	(Azhar College, Akurana)			 2753
7. 	Nuwan Abeyratne	(Sri Sumangala College)				 2168
8. 	Rashmika Perera	(Sri Dhammaloka College,Kelaniya)	  	 1114
9. 	Gayan Maneshan	(Maliyadeva College)				  914
10.	Chandimal Pathirana	(St. Anne’s College)			  787

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