Ahead of meeting Sri Lanka in their next World Cup fixture, Indian skipper Rohit Sharma hailed Sri Lanka’s legendary super-fan Mr. Percy Abeysekera as the first and the number one supporter of cricket.

Mr. Abeysekera, better known as ‘Uncle Percy’ passed away on Monday at the age of 87. He was the original cheerleader and the mascot of the Sri Lanka national team for many decades, standing with the team through thick and thin.

Sharma visited him at his home in September while he was in the island to play the Asia Cup along with few other Indian players to look into his well-being.

“It's a sad loss, sad loss to the cricketing fraternity because in my eyes, he was the number one supporter of cricket at that point in time,” Sharma responded when asked about uncle Percy.

“I was lucky to get an opportunity to meet him in Sri Lanka during the Asia Cup. He's been such a great fan of cricket. Of course, Sri Lankan team but he's probably the first ever fan that I met, who was so genuine and the support towards the players was fantastic to see. When I first went to Sri Lanka in 2006 for the U19 World Cup, he was there, but I was a little boy. I had no idea about how things work outside the cricket field. But when I went with the Indian team for the first time in 2008, I saw him for the first time. I saw how passionate he was. I got lucky as well to meet his family, his son, his grandson, their family is very sweet, I went with a few of my team members as well,” Sharma added.