Dr Vece Paes: My ready reckoner on son Leander for three decades

The last couple of days since Dr Vece Paes passed away, my WhatsApp inbox has been flooded with messages from a variety of people — friends, ex-colleagues or important cricket officials who are old acquaintances from my Dubai days. None, interestingly, from the hockey fraternity, the sport which made the man they called ‘Doc’ famous in the first place.

A reflection of the way he touched the lives of so many people much after leaving his sport. It was once again evident at St Thomas Church on Middleton Row, where the who’s who of Kolkata’s sporting fraternity converged to pay their last respects. There is a well worn cliché in death that they don’t ‘make men like them anymore’, but it sat only too well with the former ace centre-half of the Indian hockey team, a competent cricket, football and rugby player, and a pioneering figure in the country’s sports medicine ecosystem.

What’s more, there seems to be a re-assessment of the man after he has gone, as he had retreated into a shell for quite a few years once his battle with Parkinson's began. ‘The big-hearted allrounder of Indian sport’, said Indian Express while The Hindustan Times headlined 'Vece Paes – the man for all seasons'. Personally speaking, I think he would have loved to be remembered the most for successfully nurturing his dreams around his illustrious son Leander.

RIP Dr Vece Paes, the hockey star who gifted Indian tennis his son, Leander

Being a successful surgeon, it must have helped him be dispassionate in making a realistic assessment of the growth of Leander’s career. My relationship with the man developed when I was working on a small book on the tennis ace after he won the Olympics bronze at Atlanta 1996.

‘Doc’ patiently talked me through Leander’s childhood, the unsavoury phase of his divorce with basketballer wife Jennifer Paes, and how the estranged couple ensured that it did not effect the childhood of the three siblings (Leander and his sisters Jacqueline and Maria), our conversations taking place either at his Park Circus residence or Harrington Street chamber.

This, despite the fact that a celebrated tennis writer was already working on a high-profile coffee table book. ‘’Believe it or not, Lee was actually a better football player than tennis,’’ was one of the tennis dad’s favourite quotes, delivered in the most matter-of-fact way.

For most of the next three decades, Dr Paes was always my go-to person to seek bytes as the star himself would often be travelling and not accessible — whether I wanted to know about any Davis Cup or doubles landmark on the ATP Tour or his acrimonious split with Mahesh Bhupathi.

The only time over the years when the vulnerability of a father showed was when his son, then partnering the iconic Martina Navratilova and at the peak of his career, was diagnosed with a growth in the brain, which was fortunately benign. The father-son bond has been a part of Indian tennis folklore and as Doc's health deteriorated, Leander began spending more time in Kolkata, the city of his birth, to be with him.

Heartfelt condolences on the passing of Dr. Vece Paes — a true icon of Indian sports. A proud member of the 1972 Munich Olympics bronze-winning hockey team, he brought immense honor to the nation.

His impact went far beyond the field, as a pioneer in sports medicine and a mentor… pic.twitter.com/XIcG6nx6yS

— Doordarshan Sports (@ddsportschannel) August 14, 2025

Every winter for the last few years, Dr Manoj Khanna — a well known cosmetic surgeon and junior of Dr Paes at Nilaratan Sircar Medical College in Kolkata — had been organising an exhibition cricket match at the historic CC&FC grounds in the latter’s honour. The club has been extremely close to the Paes family’s heart and one vividly remembers the imposing figure stomping around to play rugby or five-side football.

‘’It’s been my privilege to host the annual cricket event, where former stars like Irfan Pathan also turned up. Not many people know that he was the only professional doctor to win an Olympic medal (bronze in the 1972 Munich Games) and a World Cup medal (bronze, 1971). The other doctor who emulated him was the great Ric Charlesworth,’’ Dr Khanna recalled.