Kolkata: Sri Lanka wore black armbands during their fixture against India in the World Cup 2023 to pay tribute to the late Percy Abeysekera, the legendary cheerleader. Percy passed away at the age of 87 on Monday, Sri Lanka cricket will now miss a fan cheering them with full devotion in most of the games. At a time, when the concept of superfans didn't exist, Percy regularly attended the fixtures of the Island nation. He cheered players by patting them on the back or waving the flag while being a spectator in the stands. He cheered the national side in the 1979 World Cup, but shot to fame in the 1996 edition. He was not only popular amongst the Sri Lankan cricketers, but was also famous amongst the international cricketers.
Former New Zealand captain Martin Crowe once handed him a man-of-the-match award. In 2015, Virat Kohli invited him to the visitors' dressing room, and Indian skipper Rohit Sharma had also visited Percy recently.
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Sri Lanka are up against India in a do-or-die contest in the World Cup on Thursday and they wore the black armbands during the game to pay tribute to cricket's original superfan. The Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) confirmed in a post on social media.
"Sri Lankan players to wear black-arm bands. Sri Lanka players will wear black armbands during today's game vs India to pay tribute to the late Percy Abeysekera, the legendary cheerleader," SLC posted on X.
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