De Mello and Grant Govan were the founding fathers of the BCCI, which was born in December 1928. According to Prof MV Chandgadkar’s piece in the BCCI Golden Jubilee Commemoration Volume 1929-1979, De Mello and Govan sailed to London, the venue of the 1929 Imperial Cricket Conference Annual Meeting, where India was admitted as “a member with the unanimous consent of the members present.” De Mello became the first secretary of the BCCI in 1928—a position he held for 10 years—apart from being its sixth president from 1946-47 to 1950-51. 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 1934-35.

M Chinnaswamy, the 17th president of the BCCI, wrote: “In 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 born.”

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Rajan Bala, the erudite sports writer who is no longer with us, reckoned India’s tours to England in 1932 and 1936, as well as the visit of Douglas Jardine’s team in 1933-34 was made possible by De Mello.  Bala quoted former BCCI president MA Chidambaram in his book, The Covers Are Off, as saying, “Tony 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 board.”

De 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, “That Lala, he had it coming all the time.” Clearly, the star administrator and the stormy petrel of Indian cricket—as Amarnath was known—didn’t see eye to eye.

Prof 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 India’s first Test team that travelled to England in 1932.

Also mentioned is Deodhar’s 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 Kolkata’s 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 London.

Deodhar didn’t forget that “empty promise” but West Indies legend Sir Frank Worrell was quoted as saying in the book, CCI and the Brabourne Stadium 1937-87, written by the late Vasant Raiji and Anandji Dossa, that De Mello was a man of his word, “When 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; he’d move heaven and earth to fulfil it.”

Raiji and Dossa provided interesting details of De Mello in their book. Born on October 11, 1900 in Karachi, and educated at St Patrick’s, 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 Vizianagram’s XI at Delhi on their 1930-31 tour of India. De Mello returned with figures of 6-66 in that innings.

De 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 1961-62. “Inclined sometimes to be dictatorial, Mr De Mello had earned many critics and opponents during his active days as the game’s leading administrator, but even they joined in unanimous praise of the services Mr De Mello had rendered to Indian cricket,” wrote Rutnagur, stressing on De Mello’s administrative skills which extended to other sports as well.

De Mello’s wish to be dressed in Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) colours was fulfilled and he was buried with “full cricketing honours.” Incidentally, his namesake Tony Greig was the last MCC captain to lift the Anthony S De Mello Trophy in 1976-77. That’s the last time England toured India under the MCC banner.

The BCCI should not wait for the India v England series to end to remember him. It’s 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 cricket.

mid-day’s group sports editor Clayton Murzello is a purist with an open stance.
He tweets @ClaytonMurzello. Send your feedback to mailbag@mid-day.com
The views expressed in this column are the individual’s and don’t represent those of the paper.