Football Olympian Balaram Parab, one of the few Indian players who sported boots in the 1948 London [Images] Games, has passed away at a local hospital in Mumbai on Tuesday.

He was 83 and is survived by three sons, according to family sources.

Parab, who used to play in the inside left or inside right positions, was a very skillful dribbler who enchanted the European teams stationed in South Mumbai's Colaba area.

They gifted him football boots with which he played in the London Olympics [Images], according to veteran sports scribe S K Sham.

Sham, who played against Parab as a collegian in a local tie, described the departed player of having possessed fine balance evidenced by the fact that even on the slushiest of grounds he used to come out with spotless clothes at the end of matches.

Former India coach Deryk D'souza, whose brother Neville had scored a famous hat-trick during the 1956 Melbourne Olympics football tournament where India reached the semi-finals, described Parab as a very humble person.

"He had very good skills and was also a fine shooter," said D'Souza who had played for Caltex, one of the Mumbai clubs which Parab had represented during his career.

Parab had donned the colours of Rajasthan Club in the Kolkata league and had also played for India Culture League and Dynamos, two well known yesteryear clubs of Mumbai.

Parab died in the St George's hospital, but surprisingly neither the state body WIFA nor the local association bothered to condole his death on Tuesday or inform the media about it.

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