A wealth of information from Saligonense C. Hubert D’Souza about Anthony de Mello that will be interesting to anyone proud of the illustrious sons of Goa.
A brother of the late Roque DeMello, the barrister, who sacrificed his life, to save the life of an unknown woman, during the First World War, he hailed from Saligao, Sonarbath. He was born and brought up in Karachi—(the nursery of many famous Goans)—in 1900. I knew him personally, in Simla, when he gave up his studies at the Inter Science level in 1917, took up a job there and gave me all his college books. But mere working in an office was not in Tony’s line for he was thinking big and acting big, as he was accustomed to do, right from his school days in Karachi. We next see him within a few years, the Managing Director of the Gwalior Motor Transport Co., Gwalior Potteries and intimately connected with the English firm of Gowan Brothers of Delhi. He was already moving about with princes, rajahs, and maharajas and the highest government officials. I have myself witnessed him in Delhi, hailing the then prospective Prime Minister as “Hi, Jawaharlal” and getting the reply “Hi, Tony”. But one thing about Tony, like in Rudyard Kipling’s poem “If”, he moved with kings but never lost the common touch. He was approachable to everybody, young or old, rich or poor and Tony knew of no caste or class barriers. Being a bachelor and having sufficient financial resources he now turned his whole attention to games because from his youngest days he was crazy after all games, and played most of them with skill, energy and zest. During his young days at the time of the First World War, he proved himself to be an outstanding sportsman of Sind. As a student of St. Patrick’s School, Karachi he captained his school teams in athletics, cricket, football, and in the last game our Cardinal Gracias played in his team. Tony continued his studies at Cambridge University and just missed his ‘Blues’ for hockey and cricket, because he had to give up his studies due to the unfortunate death of his elder 30 Outstanding Administrators | Anthony Stanislaus de Mello brother Roque who went down in the ‘Malojak Tony was a dreamer, but as in Kipling’s “If” again, he did not make dreams his master, but implemented them by founding boards, councils, associations, studies, etc. etc. In 1928, he founded the Board of Control of Cricket in India, which was affiliated to the Imperial Cricket Conference in London. He thereby put India on the cricket map of the world for the first time, and entirely due to his success the Indian Cricket teams today have beaten West Indies and England. In 1933 he initiated the famous Cricket Club of India and in 1937 he realized his dreams by building the famous Bra- bourne Stadium in Bombay in record time. It was called the ‘Lords’ of India and in it, India played an English cricket team called Gilligans’ Eleven for the first time. Lindsay Hasset, the well known cricketer in his book called Cricket Crossfire states that “the Cricket Club of India is the only Test Centre in the world where you can swim in the morning, play cricket all day and dance in the evening.” Tony then formed the Asian Cricket Conference and became its first President. He then turned his attention to other sports and built the National Sports Club of India and the First National Stadium at Delhi and had the First Asian Games there in 1951. Subsequently he built the Vallabhbhai Patel Sports Stadium in Bombay. He saw to it that the 19th World Table Tennis Championship was held at the Brabourne Stadium in Bombay in 1952 and by this feat, he proved his tremendous organizing ability. He was responsible for converting the age long Cricket Quadrangular Tournament of Bombay into a Pentangular, by forming a ‘Rest’ Team which he himself captained, and in which he put up a fairly good show with cosmopolitan players. His achievements in sports are too numerous to mention. Tony and Sports were practically synonymous terms. His portrait adorns the hall of the Brabourne Stadium in Bombay. Anthony DeMello, till his death, was a devout and practicing Catholic and the Knighthood of St. Gregory was conferred on his by the Holy Father Pope Pius XII and he was allowed to marry a gracious Parsi lady Mrs. Rita Mody under the Pauline Privilege. He yearned to be India’s Ambassador to the Vatican but did not succeed because he was too much in demand in the sporting life of India. To quote Shakespeare, it could be said of Tony, “Take him all in all I shall not look upon his like again.” Roland Francis 416-453-3371 > On Jan 29, 2021, at 6:40 PM, Jules Fausto Mendonca de Sa > <faustodes...@hotmail.com> wrote: > > Dear Roland/Dr Fred, > > I totally agree with your sentiments. I would like to mention that whilst > Anthony Stanislaus D'Mello is well known in Indian sporting circles what many > people do not know is that his older brother Roque died in tragic > circumstances. Roque studied at Cambridge University and on his graduation > aged 23 was returning back home to undivided India in 1916 when the P & O > ship S S Maloja he was travelling was hit by a German uboat in the English > Channel. This youngman was given a place on the lifeboat but gave his seat to > a young lady. He perished but sadly is unknown in Goa for this heroic deed. > > We must remember our heroes as well. > > Best regards > > Fausto > > > Sent from Outlook > > > From: Goanet <goanet-boun...@lists.goanet.org> on behalf of Roland Francis > <roland.fran...@gmail.com> > Sent: 29 January 2021 21:25 > To: Goa's premiere mailing list, estb. 1994! <goanet@lists.goanet.org> > Subject: Re: [Goanet] Anthony de Mello > > Perhaps there have been too many Goan over achievers (mostly out of Goa) for > this particular gentleman to have been singled out for extraordinary > coverage. > > Not that his was a light completely under a bushel. I for one have heard of > Anthony de Mello since many years and often, whenever cricket, BCCI and the > erstwhile Brabourne Stadium history is a little more than glossed over. > > The Anthony de Mello Trophy was created in 1951 for all India-England test > series and when these series were proposed to be renamed after the Nawab of > Pataudi in later years, it was pointed out that the series was already named > after Anthony de Mello. So after a compromise all India-England test matches > played in India were for the Anthony de Mello Trophy and the same series > played in England were for the Nawab of Pataudi Trophy. > > As for why Goa didn’t honour Anthony de Mello, he was connected with cricket, > not football. > > Roland. > Toronto. > > > On Jan 29, 2021, at 3:59 PM, Frederick Noronha > > <fredericknoron...@gmail.com> wrote: > > > > Anthony de Mello, cricket administrator > > https://emea01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fen.wikipedia.org%2Fwiki%2FAnthony_de_Mello_&data=04%7C01%7C%7C248dc0476bb74a35bfa908d8c49c79f4%7C84df9e7fe9f640afb435aaaaaaaaaaaa%7C1%7C0%7C637475523628342846%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C1000&sdata=OKq%2B6%2BVU38vwLG5j%2FUjQyZPRwGP9icIKrxmCZTCv6sI%3D&reserved=0(cricket_administrator) > > > > Here's a painting of him, by Solomon Souza, in his home village: > > https://emea01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fgoanewswire.com%2Fthe-works-of-solomon-souza-at-serendipity-arts-festival-2019%2F&data=04%7C01%7C%7C248dc0476bb74a35bfa908d8c49c79f4%7C84df9e7fe9f640afb435aaaaaaaaaaaa%7C1%7C0%7C637475523628342846%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C1000&sdata=YtRG%2BAmwmts6z4ZtZumGOhXYcrB2cS5nr8FLDlP4zZc%3D&reserved=0 > > > > These achievers get mostly swept under the carpet, forgotten in their own > > home state because we either lack the media, the clout to place their on > > the agenda, or the memories. Or maybe all three. > > > > FN > > > > > > -- > > FN* फ्रेड्रिक नोरोन्या * فريدريك نورونيا +91-9822122436 > > AUDIO: > > https://emea01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Farchive.org%2Fdetails%2Fgoa1556&data=04%7C01%7C%7C248dc0476bb74a35bfa908d8c49c79f4%7C84df9e7fe9f640afb435aaaaaaaaaaaa%7C1%7C0%7C637475523628342846%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C1000&sdata=VsOsL4znFRyjFx2t5UxySCYGdsHkz5GY3Y8je48Hc%2F4%3D&reserved=0 > > <https://emea01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Farchive.org%2Fdetails%2F%40fredericknoronha&data=04%7C01%7C%7C248dc0476bb74a35bfa908d8c49c79f4%7C84df9e7fe9f640afb435aaaaaaaaaaaa%7C1%7C0%7C637475523628342846%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C1000&sdata=%2FSmtwO35oqtuUXNzspMuoNY9LJzyd7IoA8zUUQ2xaCQ%3D&reserved=0> > > TEXT: > > https://emea01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fbit.ly%2F2SBx41G&data=04%7C01%7C%7C248dc0476bb74a35bfa908d8c49c79f4%7C84df9e7fe9f640afb435aaaaaaaaaaaa%7C1%7C0%7C637475523628342846%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C1000&sdata=wiYJCcILTqRgHAhAY8aVcAloa5wNck561EA6%2FNLROGo%3D&reserved=0 > > PIX: > > https://emea01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fbit.ly%2F2Rs1xhl&data=04%7C01%7C%7C248dc0476bb74a35bfa908d8c49c79f4%7C84df9e7fe9f640afb435aaaaaaaaaaaa%7C1%7C0%7C637475523628342846%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C1000&sdata=CM7UhTy2%2BwADNDYHfybBz4a%2FsqkoCU4aw8PKLIwHHe8%3D&reserved=0 > > Can't get through on mobile? 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