Percy confident of Lankan triumph

Chris Dhambarage

Sri Lanka's one man cheering squad Percy Abeysekera yesterday paid tribute to Sri Lanka Cricket and the Cricket World Cup Organizing Committee for successfully conducting a tournament of high caliber.

The 75 year old Public Relations Consultant of ACL Cables commended the efforts of Chairman SLC D. Somachandra de Silva and Tournament Director ICC Suraj Dandeniya for combining all forces to complete this tournament successfully.

Percy who is known to the entire cricketing fraternity and throughout the world for his enthusiastic support for his team was excited to the fact that three new stadiums have been built specially for the World Cup.

Percy, a fanatical cricket supporter believes that the Mahinda Rajapaksa Stadium in Hambantota, Pallekele Stadium in Kandy and the R. Premadasa Stadium in Colombo could be considered as some of the best in the World with all the modern facilities and more importantly the beauty surrounding it.

He noted that the vast crowds that patronized the games at these new venues proved that the highly debated reasons for choosing locations outside the capital Colombo to develop two venues for the CWC 2011 were timely.

Percy who has made his presence felt with the Sri Lankan team since the inaugural World Cup in England in 1975 believes that the present team under Kumar Sangakkara has the ingredients to last the full distance and win the World Cup for the second time. Percy is confident that England will not be able to cause a major threat to the Sri Lankan team in today's quarter-final match and recalled how opener Sanath Jayasuriya hammered the Englishmen in the 1996 encounter.

However Percy said that it was the final against Australia at Lahore that really thrilled him most as Sri Lanka went on to create history and clinch the World Cup for the first time under the captaincy of Arjuna Ranatunga.