Pissu Percy ‘pissu-fying’ in Australia-by Michael Roberts

I miss PERCY ABEYSEKARA aka Pissu Percy. His presence in cricketing arenas was a shot in the arm ….and maybe elsewhere corporeal too … for ardent cricket watchers. He was more than that: Percy was a friend, an Aloysian mate who had been one of the school cheerleaders when I participated in the cheering ‘troupes’ in the early 1950s.

buse in his stride and had a gift of the gab which enabled ripostes that generated amusement. He also had energy: in his younger days he would sprint around the ground whenever our batsmen scored a boundary.

One should also recognise his ability to plan: to save money for trips to Lankan cricket matches within the land and abroad; and time-management to secure leave and travel by public transport to the venues hosting SL matches. This included a trip to Australia when our side was on Tour circa 2003/04. We sat together at Adelaide Oval (a match our side lost if memory serves me right). And I had the pleasure of hosting Percy to an Indian rice’n curry at the Taj restaurant in Hindmarsh Square.

The best manner of appreciating WHAT PERCY BROUGHT TO CRICKET, of course, is via photographs of the TYPICAL PERCY.

Percy in jokey serenade duet with an “enemy’ supporter of the fair sex

…. and Percy was there when Rumesh Ratnayake was injured and had to be assisted off the field…

And, Volare, Percy made sure that he was at Ratmalana airport in 1981 to fete Gamini Dissanayake when he came home after securing ICC status for Sri Lanka