Hello, hello, remember De Mello!

The Anthony S De Mello Trophy is the silverware India and England play for whenever the contest is held on Indian soil And at the end of the fivematch Test series which got underway at Hyderabad today the winning captain will receive itmdashwithout much fanfaremdashI say at the risk of sounding cynicalThe BCCI donrsquot mention the Anthony De Mello Trophy in their press releases The series sponsors enjoy the privilege Sponsorship is critical but so is tradition The BCCI officials may be reminded that by mentioning the Anthony S De Mello Trophy they are honouring and remembering a personality from their tribeDe Mello and Grant Govan were the founding fathers of the BCCI which was born in December 1928 According to Prof MV Chandgadkarrsquos piece in the BCCI Golden Jubilee Commemoration Volume 19291979 De Mello and Govan sailed to London the venue of the 1929 Imperial Cricket Conference Annual Meeting where India was admitted as ldquoa member with the unanimous consent of the members presentrdquo De Mello became the first secretary of the BCCI in 1928mdasha position he held for 10 yearsmdashapart from being its sixth president from 194647 to 195051 The Ranji Trophy is considered a robust tournament helping to churn out quality talent for Test cricket De Mello played a leading role in initiating it in 193435M Chinnaswamy the 17th president of the BCCI wrote ldquoIn the old days the famous Quadrangular and Pentangular cricket tournaments played in Bombay attracted the stalwarts from Peshawar to Calcutta and from Srinagar to Cochin They were a great and unique festival at which matches were played annually in a very healthy and competitive spirit The new national and secular upsurge brought an end to these tournaments as they were run on communal lines although admittedly they never fomented or fostered communal feelings If cricket interest had to be kept alive a substitute had to be found and it was left to a visionary like Mr Anthony De Mello to find out one Mr De Mello did it admirably well and a tournament for the National Championship for the Ranji Trophy was bornrdquoRajan Bala the erudite sports writer who is no longer with us reckoned Indiarsquos tours to England in 1932 and 1936 as well as the visit of Douglas Jardinersquos team in 193334 was made possible by De Mello Bala quoted former BCCI president MA Chidambaram in his book The Covers Are Off as saying ldquoTony was a supremely confident person and full of plans for Indian cricket Without him being at the helm of affairs I am convinced progress would have been slower But he also had the tendency to tread on corns though it did not bother him Basically he was acceptable to all types of people the British who were in power the Hindus Muslims Parsis and the Sikhs To the Christians he was a hero I admired him though it was sad the manner in which he was ousted from the boardrdquoDe Mello was board secretary when Amarnath was sent back home from the England tour of 1936 where differences with captain Maharajkumar of Vizianagram and Amarnath surfaced Bala was told that when De Mello got the news of Amarnath being sent home he exclaimed ldquoThat Lala he had it coming all the timerdquo Clearly the star administrator and the stormy petrel of Indian cricketmdashas Amarnath was knownmdashdidnrsquot see eye to eyeProf DB Deodhar was another big name who had a poor opinion of De Mello In 101 Not Out a book on Deodhar by Dr Vasant Naik the BCCI official was accused of conspiring with CK Nayudu to leave Deodhar out from Indiarsquos first Test team that travelled to England in 1932Also mentioned is Deodharrsquos bitterness over the influential De Mello not living up to his promise of arranging an air ticket for Deodhar to travel to England in 1946 to report on the series for Kolkatarsquos Hindustan Standard after ending his national selection duties Deodhar chose the option of travelling to Karachi in the hope of passenger cancellations for him to board a flight to LondonDeodhar didnrsquot forget that ldquoempty promiserdquo but West Indies legend Sir Frank Worrell was quoted as saying in the book CCI and the Brabourne Stadium 193787 written by the late Vasant Raiji and Anandji Dossa that De Mello was a man of his word ldquoWhen Mr De Mello enters a room you feel that here is a man among men His optimism is infectious If he promised you the Empire State Building you would be sure of one thing hersquod move heaven and earth to fulfil itrdquoRaiji and Dossa provided interesting details of De Mello in their book Born on October 11 1900 in Karachi and educated at St Patrickrsquos the Sind College and Downing College Cambridge De Mello built the Brabourne Stadium And his medium pace bowling for Rest of India once dismissed legendary English openers Jack Hobbs and Herbert Sutcliffe and CK Nayudu of Maharajkumar of Vizianagramrsquos XI at Delhi on their 193031 tour of India De Mello returned with figures of 666 in that inningsDe Mello passed away on May 24 1961 He deserved more than just six lines in the Obituaries section of Wisden but Dicky Rutnagur paid him a fine tribute in The Indian Cricket Field Annual of 196162 ldquoInclined sometimes to be dictatorial Mr De Mello had earned many critics and opponents during his active days as the gamersquos leading administrator but even they joined in unanimous praise of the services Mr De Mello had rendered to Indian cricketrdquo wrote Rutnagur stressing on De Mellorsquos administrative skills which extended to other sports as wellDe Mellorsquos wish to be dressed in Marylebone Cricket Club MCC colours was fulfilled and he was buried with ldquofull cricketing honoursrdquo Incidentally his namesake Tony Greig was the last MCC captain to lift the Anthony S De Mello Trophy in 197677 Thatrsquos the last time England toured India under the MCC bannerThe BCCI should not wait for the India v England series to end to remember him Itrsquos a long series and the Trophy should figure in the promotions After all there is no reason to disbelieve our historians when they say De Mello was a showman of cricketmiddayrsquos group sports editor Clayton Murzello is a purist with an open stanceHe tweets ClaytonMurzello Send your feedback to mailbagmiddaycomThe views expressed in this column are the individualrsquos and donrsquot represent those of the paper