FRANCIS ‘Mickey’ D’MELLO: The schoolboy who upstaged the iconic Govinda in 1971

This is first of the Series we are starting. Here, we will focus on former players, their struggle, success and failures. The idea is to enlighten GenNext on the life and times of our past hockey heroes – Editor        

By ERROL D’CRUZ

A Mumbai player in the India hockey team was tough to come by in the 1960s and 70s. And a schoolboy from the city in the team for the 1971 World Cup may well have caused many to rub eyes in disbelief. But it was 18-year-old Francis D’Mello who found a place in the Barcelona-bound squad for the first ever World Cup, defying the odds and machinations that governed selection. D’Mello, speaking from his Dadar abode, went down memory lane to the Barcelona World Cup held exactly 49 years ago.

“Indian hockey is dominated by Punjab, more so in those days. Mumbai players, no matter how talented, rarely got a chance. But, thanks to the efforts of the Bombay Hockey Association secretary, Mumbai-based Jos Gonsalves, there were two in the team for the World Cup,” D’Mello recollects.

“After politics largely had its say, the team was selected and all but one spot – the centre forward position — had to be filled. Two players were left to vie for selection. They were Govinda and myself.

“Here’s where Jos played his trump card. He asserted that I was versatile and had proved myself at the National Institute of Sports (NIS) camp in Patiala in various positions – right from defence, to the midfield, to the forward line. Govinda, however, was an out-and-out centre-forward and couldn’t fit in anywhere else.

“Jos won the debate hands down and I made the team!”

Imagine a schoolboy upstaging an Indian icon who would be a fixture in the national squad for years to come. But that only spoke of the faith reposed in him by Gonsalves.

D’Mello had for company another Mumbai lad. He was goalkeeper and schoolmate Cedric Pereira, a “Bandra Boy” like D’Mello. He valued Pereira’s guidance on and off the pitch and the St Stanislaus High School duo embarked on a high-pressure assignment to Barcelona.

D’Mello has fond memories of the camp at Patiala and the campaign in Barcelona. Time on the pitch was restricted, however, to one half of the bronze medal playoff against Kenya which India won 2-1 in extra-time.

“I sustained a hamstring pull and couldn’t play on,” D’Mello recalls. “But I enjoyed the tournament thoroughly,” he said.

“I remember Tony Fernandes (who settled in France) interacting and helping the team in whatever way he could as he knew the city and its hockey circles well since he ran a team there.

Etched deeply in D’Mello’s memory is the welcome he received by his school when he returned from the World Cup.

“My school principal told me to address the congregation of students at the morning assembly. He said that I should tell them that today would be a holiday to celebrate my role in the Indian team at the World Cup! I did so and such a message shocked the assembly. But they soon broke into celebration,” D’Mello, ‘Mickey’ to his friends, recollects with a chuckle.

“I have good memories of the camp in Patiala too. I remember Ajit Pal Singh, our captain, to be a thorough gentleman. “I recall an incident in Patiala when Cedric and I went to the movies and the clerk at the ticket counter refused to issue me a ticket despite me handing him the money. “Ajit Pal, who was there with a group of other players to watch the movie as well, intervened and made sure I was given the ticket I paid for!”

When it came to business on the hockey pitch, however, D’Mello frowns over the ineptness of the Indian think tank. “Strategy, tactics and selection for a match based on the opposition strengths and weaknesses were poor,” he recounts.

“We had a far better team than Pakistan (eventual champions) but still lost to them in the semi-finals. Better thought and planning would have brought a different result.”

Gonsalves’ adjudication of the teenager’s ability has stood the test of time. D’Mello’s illustrious Mahindra teammates echoes  the official’s views.

Says Olympian, World Cupper and former India captain MM Somaya: “Francis had exceptional game sense and situational awareness. He could effortlessly influence the result of a game due to his versatility. He could score brilliant goals, be a creative playmaker or show tenacity while defending. He was the total package.

“A restrained and unassuming presence on the field helped him fly below the radar and so make significant contributions without much ado,” adds the former right-half.

Schoolmate, Olympian, World Cupper and former India coach Joaquim Carvalho still gets caught in the spell cast by D’Mello’s sublime skills.

“If you didn’t watch him play, you missed a silent assassin in motion. A very dangerous forward. We were all in awe of him,” says Carvalho who recalls the school band going to the airport to receive him on his return from the World Cup.

D’Mello, sadly, fell off the radar after the Barcelona sojourn. He learned that skill and ability aren’t key parameters in donning India colours. It was the imponderables that governed selection.

After the tour of Aghanistan in 1974, he called time on his international career. “I had had enough,” D’Mello says. He, however, continued delighting aficionados while representing Mahindras in the Bombay Gold Cup, Aga Khan and various other All India tournaments country-wide. “Mahindras’ 1982 Aga Khan Cup triumph is my most memorable moment,” D’Mello declares.

As a tender 16-year-old, D’Mello took the pitch for Western Railway, another colourful Mumbai outfit who in their ranks had the redoubtable Balbir Singh, the electrifying right-winger. After two seasons, he joined Mahindras and represented the team till 1989 when he retired from the game altogether.

D’Mello keeps himself aloof from coaching and selection but follows the game as closely as he can while catching up on the action on television.

In his long career, he influenced the who’s who of Mumbai’s upcoming talent, be it Mahindras or the Mumbai teams to the National Championships. The crop included Joaquim Carvalho, Somaya, Dhanraj Pillay, Marcellus Gomes, Mark Patterson, Hilary Gomes and several others. “They used to refer to me as ‘Sir’,” he fondly remembers.

D’Mello’s heart-warming raconteur belies the tough life he has had. He doesn’t remember seeing his parents who passed away when he was little. As an orphan, he found himself in St Stanislaus’ boarding school but that opened a vista that would enable him make an impact on hockey.

“St Stanislaus’, as you know, is a nursery for the game in Mumbai and I soon found myself dribbling endlessly along the concrete pathways near the ground,” D’Mello, who lived on Bazaar Road after passing out of school, reminisces. “My coach Cyril Gabriel, and later Oliver Andrade, moulded me as a player. Boarding school life groomed me as a person.”

More challenges lay in wait. His younger son Clayton was claimed by a rare form of cancer when only 15. “That was hard to bear,” D’Mello, married to Priscilla, says. Carlisle, his other son, played hockey for Mumbai and Bombay Port Trust as centre-half but D’Mello, now a grandfather, refused to use any form of influence to land him a place in the India team.

“I wanted my son to learn the realities of Indian hockey and the challenges facing team selection.” Understandably so. After all D’Mello learned things about Indian hockey the hard way and was in many ways hard done by in the wake of perennial vagaries of administration and selection plaguing Indian hockey.

Those who saw him play swear that the greater harm done by those sinister forces was to Indian hockey. D’Mello’s presence in an India shirt would have enriched the sport’s fortunes. Not to mention draw fans in droves to watch his enchanting skills and prowess.