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Uncle Percy, cricket’s first superfan, dies aged 87
At a time superfans didn’t exist as a concept or even a dream, Percy was a regular fixture at matches featuring Sri Lanka
Percy Abeysekara, cricket’s original cheerleader and Sri Lanka’s mascot, will not be seen standing on the boundary with the Sri Lanka flag anymore. Lovingly known world over as Uncle Percy, he died on Monday, aged 87. “It is with great sadness that I heard our beloved Uncle Percy has met his maker. You were the first superfan and for all of us you will always be special. RIP,” wrote Sanath Jayasuriya on X on Monday.
Percy was to Sri Lanka what Chacha Cricket was to Pakistan or Gravy to Antigua, and perhaps much much more. At a time superfans didn’t exist as a concept or even a dream, Percy was a regular fixture at matches featuring Sri Lanka—patting players, escorting batters from the boundary rope to the dressing room fringes, waving the flag all along. Abeysekera cheered for Sri Lanka since the 1979 World Cup but he gained more fame during the 1996 edition that was co-hosted by Sri Lanka.
He was almost synonymous with the golden generation of Sri Lanka, right from the heady World Cup winning days of 1996 till about the mid 2010s when the last of the greats—Mahela Jayawardene, Kumar Sangakkara and Muttiah Muralitharan retired within the space of a few years. “From my debut till my last game Uncle Percy was a constant. His contribution to the game in Sri Lanka stands equal to any of the players that have worn the shirt. His energy, his passion, knowledge and rhyme will be sorely missed. Rest in peace Uncle Percy,” wrote Sangakkara on X.
Not just among Sri Lankan cricketers, Percy was pally with many top international cricketers.
Former New Zealand captain Martin Crowe once handed him his man-of-the-match award. In 2015, Virat Kohli had invited him to the visitors' dressing room. This September, Rohit Sharma visited Percy at his home to check on him. A familiar face at all cricket matches involving Sri Lanka for nearly five decades, Percy couldn’t travel to India due to ailing health, prompting the Sri Lanka board to help him out with LKR 5 million recently.
Percy was more than a superfan. In Sri Lanka, he was an one-stop repository of anecdotes, most prominent one being that of the Australian team’s whistle stop tour of Sri Lanka in 1948. It was also his first game of international cricket. “My two brothers took me by train from Galle,” Nicholas Brookes—author of An Island’s Eleven, The Story of Sri Lankan Cricket—quotes Percy as saying. “We were on the grassy bank, the ‘Gandhi Stand’. All the poor people go there. The ticket was 25 cents, and there were flags here, there and everywhere.”
He is reported to have been invited to join the Sri Lankan cricket board but Percy had declined the position. “There are three things I don't like in the whole world, one is politics, the other one is cricket administration, and the third one is birth control,” he had said. His love for the game was unconditional and absolute. Which is why it makes perfect sense that Percy had named his grandsons Garfield—after Sir Garry Sobers—and Sachinka, after Sachin Tendulkar.
