[Goanet] CRICKET: Anthony de Mello

[Goanet Sports]

While so much is written about the CCI and Brabourne Stadium staging a Test 
match 
after 36 years, few have remembered the man who was instrumental in building 
the 
Lord’s of India – Anthony de Mello. Below is an article by S.K. Sham from the 
book – 
CRICKET CLUB OF INDIA – CELEBRATING 75 YEARS. The book will be released on the 
morning of December 2nd for the Third Test between India and Sri Lanka by Mr. 
Ashok 
Chavan, Chief Minister of Maharashtra. The book is published by The Marine 
Sports.


Anthony de Mello, whose centenary falls today, ought to be acclaimed as the 
father 
of Indian cricket.

Today, India can boast of having more cricket stadia for international matches 
than 
any other cricket-playing nation in the world and the stadia-mania has not 
quite 
ended.

Sadly enough, the one which is still the most magnificent among them all, and 
stands 
as a monument to the visionary who started it all, the Brabourne Stadium, has 
only a 
secondary role to play these days, picking an odd, unwanted international match 
to 
justify its existence.

The man who built the Brabourne Stadium and the Cricket Club of India, was born 
exactly a hundred years ago on this day. Though he belonged to a community that 
took 
more naturally to hockey and football. Anthony Stanislaus de Mello ought to be 
acclaimed as ‘the father of Indian cricket,’ a credit-title which not many 
would 
consider his as a matter of right.

The above statement might sound somewhat strange, when the history of Indian 
cricket 
would have it that it was the passionate involvement of Indian princes that 
helped 
to nurture the game in a big way. But this royal patronage had enormous foreign 
support, in the form of the British regime and imported players.

To de Mello, however, goes the credit of truly ‘Indianising Indian cricket.’ An 
odd 
statement this, but remember that the game was controlled by the Britishers, 
who had 
frowned on commoners spearheading, or even being a part of the administration.

De Mello became the first Indian secretary of the game’s administration in 
1928-29, 
long before the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) was born and again 
in 
1938-39. It was mainly through his efforts that the BCCI came into being.

De Mello also had the distinction of being the BCCI president in 1946-47 and 
again 
in 1950-51. A decent player himself, having played for Delhi in the National 
Championship and for The Rest in the Pentangular, he was also the chairman of 
the 
selection committee for quite some years. It was during his tenure as secretary 
and 
later president that India visited England twice and the English team came here 
for 
the first time to play official Test matches in 1932-33.

It was as an able administrator that ‘Tony’, as he was fondly known, showed his 
genius. He managed to get a free allotment of land from the then Governor of 
Bombay, 
Lord Brabourne, for his ambitious plans of giving India not only a cricket 
stadium 
but a world-class one at that.

Little had he realised that he would face such a financial crunch as he did. 
The 
attractive offer of life-membership on one-time payment of Rs.100, dangled by 
him in 
1935, had few takers. It was only because of his high contacts with the genteel 
and 
a few Indian industrial houses, like Tata’s and munificent donation from the 
then 
Maharaja of Patiala and the Governor himself that the Brabourne Stadium and the 
Cricket Club of India was completed in 1937.

The magnificent cricketing venue and the clubhouse indeed became the envy of 
the 
world. Lord Brabourne himself was quoted as saying “We may have the Lord’s, 
that 
will forever be the home of this great game but going around, you will not find 
a 
Cricketing Paradise as this.”

No cricket venue anywhere in the world had so much to offer. Apart from a whole 
big 
stadium, a clubhouse with the best rooming facilities, one of the best bars and 
kitchens in town, a dance-hall, with band in attendance, in-house laundry, name 
it 
and you would have it. Keith Miller said, on his visit in 1945, “There is 
nothing 
like it anywhere.”

Tiger Pataudi, who made little fuss about some of his nawabi habits, once said 
he 
liked playing at the CCI best. “Where else can you get off your four-poster bed 
and 
step straight into the playing arena?”

With the Brabourne Stadium and de Mello finally settled, each to an ambition 
fulfilled, there were turbulent times ahead for the greatest administrator that 
the 
country has seen. While no one questioned de Mello’s tremendous ability to 
promote 
the game and provide the best of facilities, he was not without his detractors. 
Tony’s 
rather haughty and, at times, imperious, nature brought him into conflict with 
some 
of those who believed that they too could so easily grad a piece of the 
administrative cake.

It was de Mello’s role as a selector that brought him in direct confrontation 
with 
those who did not see eye to eye with some of his policies. It is said that 
when 
steel clashes with steel, sparks are bound to fly. And so it was, when de Mello 
was 
the BCCI president and chairman of the selection committee and Lala Amarnath 
the 
captain of the Indian team.

When India failed to win the final Test against the West Indies at the 
Brabourne 
Stadium in February of 1949, by mere six runs, the entire blame was put at the 
feet 
of the visiting captain, John Goddard had indeed resorted to the most blatant 
of 
time-wasting tactics. (Remember those days there were no mandatory overs).

However, an earlier clash in the dressing room between de Mello and skipper 
Amarnath 
too must have had its effect on the final outcome. When India were set a target 
of 
360 for victory. Tony walked into the dressing room and asked the skipper what 
his 
batting order was. Lala, who had already had a few clashes with the BCCI 
president 
earlier, bluntly refused to divulge the same. “I demand to know,” said de 
Mello. 
“You can ask me questions after the match, but now, you please get out of the 
dressing room and leave my team alone,” said a terribly angry captain, who in 
the 
same state of mind, put himself down to bat at No 3.

De Mello, the man who had done so much for Indian cricket was, however, not a 
very 
happy person heading the BCCI thereafter, because it was a house divided 
against 
itself. He, however, had a new admirer in India’s first Prime Minister, Pandit 
Jawaharlal Nehru, a great lover of sports himself.

Nehru invited de Mello to help him organise the first-ever Asian Games in 
Delhi. It 
was de Mello who built the National Sports Club of India (NSCI) and the 
Vallabhabhai 
Patel Stadium, not only in Delhi (for the Asiad), but also in Bombay.

For a man of his stature and his achievements, de Mello made a rather sad exit 
from 
the administration of the game he had enriched so much. The majority ganged up 
against him at the BCCI meeting at the Imperial Hotel in Delhi and 
unceremoniously 
threw him out as president in 1951, the year the Asian Games were held.

A crest-fallen de Mello, as he left the meeting hall, spelt out a vow in full 
hearing of the gathering “I will never again set foot in any venue where the 
great 
game of cricket is played.” His exile from cricket saw him write a fascinating 
book, 
titled ‘The Portrait of Indian Sport.’ The cover page carried a picture of the 
man 
he admired most, Pandit Nehru that too in full cricket gear.

De Mello was already a forgotten name when he died in 1961. People will 
continue to 
talk of legends, like CK Nayudu, Vijay Merchant, Lala Amarnath. How many do you 
hear 
ever mention the name of AS de Mello, indubitably the man who did more for 
Indian 
cricket than any other.


SOURCE: The Marine Sports