Uncle Percy no more

by Rex Clementine

Renowned cheerleader Percy Abeysekara passed away yesterday after a brief illness. He was 87 years old.

Uncle Percy as he was popularly known had seen all the highlights of Sri Lankan cricket. He had seen Sir Don Bradman play in 1948. In 1971, he was arrested for invading the pitch and had to be bailed out by Mahadevan Sathasivam.

In 1981, when Gamini Dissanayake returned home having won Test status, he was there at Katunayake to welcome the Board President.

Uncle Percy’s lion flag was confiscated by MCC in 1984 as flags weren’t allowed at Lord’s. He witnessed the inaugural Test win in 1985 in Colombo and was there in Lahore when Sri Lanka became world champions in 1996.

He had powerful friends both here and overseas. He used to make fun at President J.R. Jayawardene and get away with it. When he was arrested in Australia for entering the playing area, Adam Gilchrist and Ricky Ponting argued his case.

At times he got under the Australians skin like when he said, ‘David Boon, Tasmanian goon, come back soon, before none.’

Mohammad Azharuddin came to Sri Lanka with a big reputation having scored three hundreds against England in his debut series but couldn’t make an impact in Sri Lanka as he believed Percy was a charmer.

Martin Crowe once gave away his Man of the Match award to Percy while Ravi Shastri wrote, ‘Percy, never lose your voice. Sri Lanka needs it more than you.’

When he was ill a few months ago, several Sri Lankan cricketers visited him. Even Indian captain Rohit Sharma visited him at home.

Sri Lanka Cricket gave away a donation for his medical expenses.

Uncle Percy will be missed. We may replace Aravinda de Silva one day, but we will never be able to replace Percy Abeysekara. He was in a league of his own.