Renaissance Man of Indian Sports ‘Dr. Vece Paes’ Passes Away at 80 Years

Dr. Vece Paes, the Renaissance man of Indian sports and a bronze medalist in the Olympics and Hockey World Cup-winning team, passed away on 14 August 2025. He was 80 years old, and the cause of his death was Parkinson's disease and age-related complications. A versatile player, Vece Paes also played divisional cricket, football, and rugby.

About Dr. Vece Paes

• Dr. Vece Paes was Born on 30 April 1945 in Goa, Vece Paes completed his schooling in Bengaluru, where he was an excellent athlete and excelled in hockey.
• In 1963, he moved to Kolkata to study medicine and, like his father and three siblings, became a doctor.
• He studied at St. Xavier’s College and Presidency University before completing his MBBS from the prestigious Nil Ratan Sircar Medical College and Hospital under the University of Calcutta.
• He was a member of India’s bronze medal-winning hockey team at the 1972 Munich Olympics and a member of the 1996 Olympic bronze medal-winning team.

Hockey Career of Vece Paes

• A shrewd midfielder of the Indian hockey team in the late 1960s and early 1970s, Dr. Paes was known for his vision, composure, and ability to blend defensive and attacking play.
• He represented legendary clubs like East Bengal and Mohun Bagan and proved himself as a talented player, winning several domestic titles such as the Beighton Cup and the Calcutta League.
• This earned him a place in the Indian hockey team for the Hamburg International Cup in Germany in 1966, where he made his international debut. At that time, he was still a pre-medical student.
• This was the beginning of his nearly decade-long international career, during which he became one of the national team’s most reliable midfielders.
• The most important moment of Vece Paes’s sporting career came at the 1972 Munich Olympics, where he helped India win a bronze medal, in addition to the bronze medal won at the first Hockey World Cup held in Barcelona in 1971.

Involvement in Other Sports

• A versatile sportsman, Vece Paes also played divisional cricket, football, and rugby. Rugby, in particular, became his lifelong passion.
• He represented the Calcutta Cricket and Football Club in the sport and later served as president of the Indian Rugby Football Union from 1996 to 2002.

Dr. Paes’ Contribution to Medicine & Administration

• Due to his medical expertise, Dr. Paes worked with athletes from various sports, helping them recover from injuries and advance their careers.
• He also worked as a medical advisor for the All India Tennis Association (AITA) and the All India Football Federation (AIFF), and as the team doctor of the Indian Davis Cup team.
• Dr. Vece Paes’s expertise was also widely seen in cricket, as he introduced anti-doping and age-verification systems as Sports Medicine Advisor for the Asian Cricket Council (ACC) between 2001 and 2009.
• Later, he led the BCCI’s national anti-doping efforts. Administrators like Ratnakar Shetty credited him with changing the BCCI’s approach to player welfare.

His Legacy - Leander Paes

• His son, Leander Paes, went on to become one of India’s most prestigious tennis players. Leander ended India’s 44-year wait for an individual Olympic medal by winning the men’s singles bronze at Atlanta 1996 and won 18 Grand Slam doubles titles.