ACL Cables celebrates birthday of Lanka’s much-loved cheerleader Percy Abeysekera

• Company’s longest serving employee

Percy Abeysekera is not your average employee. In fact he is a living legend and Sri Lanka’s much-loved veteran one-man cheerleader. Percy is also one of the first employees of ACL Cables Plc, the nation’s no. 1 cable company, joining back in 1962. 

Recognising his contribution to the sport and organisation, ACL Cables celebrated his 82nd birthday at the company’s head office recently. 

During the gala occasion, Percy cut a special cake which preceded the main celebratory function in the presence of all ACL staff members. The happy occasion was graced by many past cricketing legends and the media.

ACL Cables Plc Chairman Upali Madanayake and ACL Cables Plc Managing Director Suren Madanayake also graced the occasion.

The event was especially memorable as several cricketers, including members from the victorious 1996 World Cup squad such as Arjuna Ranatunga, Roshan Mahanama and Hashan Tilakaratne, accompanied by Sri Lanka’s longstanding veteran cricketing duo Sidath Wettimuny and Brendon Kuruppu graced the function making way for Percy to share many sweet memories of the past with the crowd. Representing the current national team and recent past, Rangana Herath, Dimuth Karunaratne, Sachithra Senanayake and Nuwan Kulasekara were also present at the occasion. 

Commenting on this special occasion, Chairman Upali Madanayake said: “I’m really privileged to have such an active and dedicated employee in our staff for 56 years. He has been a great source of strength and encouragement to me and the company. Since our inception in 1962 Percy has been with us during good times as well as not so great times. I wish him every success in life and a long life ahead so that he may also be with us for more years.”

Adding to these sentiments, Managing Director Suren Madanayake noted: “At ACL Cables we are really proud of Percy who has been with us for over five decades and we are honoured to organise a function to celebrate his 82nd birthday. We truly appreciate his steadfast commitment towards the company and the whole of Sri Lanka throughout and believe he deserves much more. All of us at ACL Cables wish Percy good health, happiness and a long life. For Percy, who cheered on many of our cricketers on the field while they went on to achieve centuries in their cricketing career, we now pray that he continues onward and achieves a century in his own life too.”

Percy joined ACL Cables in 1962 as a factory foreman and rose to the post of factory manager in his professional career. Later on Percy moved to the ACL head office taking over the role of public relations consultant and served as the brand ambassador for ACL Cable corporate affairs. 

Percy starting his one-man cheering squad in 1948 when he was 12 years old, witnessing his first match at the P. Sara Stadium between Australia and Ceylon. He’s one of the very few people alive today to have witnessed the likes of Sir Donald Bradman and Mahadevan Sathasivam playing in the same match. “I’m happy and thankful to the Chairman, MD and the staff of ACL Cables for organising such a memorable surprise birthday for me. While I feel so honoured cheering on our motherland for 70 years, 30 years without the flag and 40 years with the flag, at the same time I feel so privileged working for ACL under this great management. I thank everyone who attended the ceremony, especially our 1996 World champs with whom I treasure many special memories,” Percy said.