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Home History Anthony Demello: TheForgotten Hero - History AnthonyDemello: The Forgotten Hero By Mr. Right India 0 India is credited to have hosted thefirst-ever Asian Games way back in 1951 and Jawaharlal Nehru, the first PrimeMinister is supposed to be the prime mover behind these games but the realityis a bit different. As it always happened, Nehru was the accidental PM of thecountry when the country showed to the world that the nascent Indian state isalso capable of hosting the world-class events. The real architect of these games wasAnthony Demello who saved the country from the ignominy at the internationalforum. As it happened the games had to be postponed twice because the host wassupposedly not ready with the required preparations. During the London Olympics of 1948, thespokesperson of the Chinese and the Japanese sports contingent expressed thedesire to restarting of the defunct Eastern Sports Championship so that theAsian countries could also showcase their sporting talents. To this Mr.GurudattSodhi, the leader of the sports contingent of India to the Olympics gamesobjected saying that such competitions would promote selective countries andnot entire Asia. This demand culminated in the founding of Asian AthleticsFederation in the year 1949 and India was awarded the hosting year for thefollowing year. Delhi was chosen as the host city. The crisis soon emerged as there weren’tadequate infrastructure and residential facilities required for hosting such anevent. The Games were originally planned for February 1950 which had to bepostponed until November 1950. The residential complex for the athletes was notready yet nor was the National Stadium ready till now. So the games wereultimately deferred till March 1951. India’s reputation was at stake anddesperate times call in for desperate moves. The legendary Anthony Demello whohad founded the BCCI and was the chief architect of the National Stadium in1933 was called in to save the national honours. The man lived up to hisreputation. He started mobilising funds by asking the Cricket Club of India andNational Sports Club of India to give him some money on loan. The latter gavehim a handsome amount of Rs. 1 lakh on loan and the former also helped himgenerously. After that, he formed an 18 member executive committee with nopolitician in it. Nehru was fumed to see that his name was kept out of thesports committee but he had no other choice. The King of Patiala, RajaYadvendra Singh who was a sports enthusiast was made the chairperson of thisexecutive committee. Suddenly things started to fall inplace. The audience capacity of the national stadium got upgraded to 40000 fromthe existing 25000. As for providing the residential facilities, Demello askedthe Army Chief KM Kariappa to give him 2 camps in his premises which wereconverted to full fledged sports village. So finally India was ready to host thegames in March 1951, a total of 11 countries participated in it. Japan toppedthe medals tally with 60 medals while India stood 2nd with 51 medals. SachinNag, the swimmer won the first gold medal for the Indians. India finished with15 gold medals, 16 silver medals and 20 bronze medals to its name. Theaccidental PM stole the limelight of the first ever Asian Games and as italways happened, the names of the real heroes who scripted the success storygot erased completely with time. As the 2018 Asian Games come near, thesporting fraternity should remember the man, the name Anthony Demello, India’sown Le Corbusier.
