He Is Percy,Cricket Crazy But He Has no Mercy For Those Cricketers,Spectators & Administrators Who Are Lazy.
Not just anyone can be a die hard, hard-core cricket fan. Being a fanatical cricket supporter requires a certain kind of steely and, yes, strange, character. You have to be the type who will do anything In order to follow and support your team. Sri Lanka’s Number one cheerleader Percy Abesekera is exactly that kind of a person. From the time he was a young boy, he showed promising sign of the zealous cricket fan he would turn out to be.
In fact, as a boy failed his advanced level (A/L) examination because his hero C.I Gunasekara was playing against Tamilnadu at Sara Stadium and young Percy Knew he had to be there.No word on what his mother thought of that decision, but he didn’t turn out too badly despite it as he went on to become the public relations officer of Sri Lankan cable company ACL cables. He also became Sri Lankan’s most well recognised and most devoted cricket fan.
30th of 1936 he born to this world and today his is celebrating his 76th Birthday, Percy is known to the entire Sri Lankan cricketing fraternity and indeed the world for his enthusiastic support for his team.
He has all the characteristics of your die hard travelling cricket devotee. Flag in hand? Check!
From England to the Sub-Continent, the neat and dapper Percy can always be spotted vigorously waving the brilliantly coloured Sri Lankan flag.
An expensive and all inclusive love for the game?
Check! Though Sri Lanka is always first in his heart, Percy has great admiration for cricketers of other nations. When he heard that the West Indies’ star batsman Brian Lara would not be playing during a series in Sri Lanka in 2005, Percy made his feelings eloquently clear.
“My disappointment at not seeing Lara this time is bigger than elephant,” he declared dramatically. Percy’s love for cricket goes so far that he actually named his eldest son Garfield after Sir Garfield Sobers. He then prevailed on his son to name two of his grandchildren Garfield (one was not enough) and Sachin!
Eccentric personality? Check! Perhaps rightly recognising that is a legend in his own right, Percy is known to refer to himself in the third person.
“Percy cricket crazy but he has no mercy for Cricketers, Spectators, Administrators and rest who are Lazy” he declared in one interview.
The behaviour is perhaps not so eccentric if you consider that he is also the reigning poet laureate of international cricket. At the drop of a hat, or rather at the fall of a wicket, Percy will burst in to verse, with such gems as “Vass you’re class!”
Today we wish him many happy returns of the day behalf of Cricturf.com Crew.
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