SportCharith Asalanka, who won the coveted 37th Bata-Sunday Times Schoolboy Cricketer of the Year Award for the consecutive second year, said he cherished the occasion as he dreamt of winning the Schoolboy Cricketer Award at his early school career, when he attended one of the schoolboy cricketer awards nights in 2013 at the age of 16. “I worked hard towards achieving my goal to become a Schoolboy Cricketer, I had never missed any practice session during my whole career, “ said the left-hander, who won the Best Batsman’s Award as well. During the last two years, Asalanka clinched six Schoolboy Cricketer Awards with the Best Batsman’s Awards at six mega shows including a double-double at the Bata-Sunday Times event sponsored by Bata Shoe Company of Ceylon Limited and conducted by the Wijeya Newspapers (Pvt) Limited. Asalanka led the Sri Lanka Under-19 team and captained the side at the last Youth World Cup before he played a few first class games including the Sri Lanka A against West Indies A last month. Charith’s icon in cricket is Virat Kohli, the Indian batting hero, who have been played good cricket since his debut.

Source: Sunday Times November 18, 2016 12:20 UTC