Polo to the people: the journey of the game beyond royals and the Army

It is a little like Ascot. No one is sure of what really goes on, except that there are lots of beautifully-dressed people. And even though hats are not compulsory, they are encouraged. Polo in India has been synonymous with royalty, the Indian Army, breeches and pearls. It is a close-knit fraternity where everybody knows everybody, and unless you are really good, you may not make it to the after-party; even if you are at the high tea.

“It runs in families, and it’s really about a lifestyle. People come out with their kids and dogs, and have a polo picnic,” says Shivani Joshi, from the quarterly La Polo, a two-year-old magazine founded in India (by Maninder Sethi, president of Maharaja Ranjit Singh Polo Federation) and distributed in 169 countries. It is a lifestyle that reeks of entitlement and privilege. “Events in polo-playing nations abroad, whether it’s Argentina or the UK, are ticketed. But in India, they’re still invite-only affairs,” she adds.

Even within the Army’s structured hierarchies, it is the Armoured Corps (the erstwhile cavalry) officers who have the best access, their children growing up watching polo matches like most do school football. Polo teams have specifically derived a number of officers from 61 Cavalry, one of the world’s last remaining non-ceremonial mounted regiments, and one that has seen many generations of individual families. And yet, of the players on this year’s national team, only one is a royal (Maharaja Padmanabh Singh), and one an army man (Col Ravi Rathore). Angad Kalaan and Dhruvpal Godara (with Army dads) are civilians, while Pranav Kapur and Siddhant Sharma have no military or royalty in their blood.

With a different kind of India emerging, things are changing, opportunities are more widespread, and polo is being seen as a sport. “Sports overall are getting a boost, and just as parents are taking, say, football or basketball seriously, they are also looking at polo as a possibility. Sports is like wine; academics like roti-kapda-makaan. We’ve taken care of academics, so now we’re talking about quality of life, recreation. Like other sports, polo is only going to improve,” says an Indian Army officer, who has been one of the game’s propagators, especially in Bengaluru’s Agram Riding and Polo Academy, where he has trained several young people.

 

Horsing around

The horse is really where it all begins. “Imagine controlling a 500 kg beast that’s flying at 40 feet per second,” says Joshi. It is this element of ‘danger’ that makes it desirable. “I’ve lost a couple of teeth and broken about 16 bones, but it’s not as dangerous as it seems,” says Col Tarun Sirohi (retd), a four-time World Cup player and four-time Indian Open winner. There is very little money in it in India — the winner gets a trophy, and is paid a professional fee by the patron — it is all about guts and glory.

A couple of decades ago, if you wanted to ride, you would have to own a horse. All this changed in the ’90s, with the rise of polo clubs. Today, there are schools investing in the sport, pushing this change. Take La Pegasus Polo Centre. Owned by Sanjay Jindal (Jindal Drugs), and helmed by Col Sirohi, it is developing a polo academy on the outskirts of Gurugram. The first of its kind in India, it is set across 300 acres, with 60 horses, and is the only one to get accredited by the Asociación Argentina de Polo (AAP) — which, in its 96-year history, has so far accredited facilities only within Argentina (considered the world’s number one polo playing nation).

Raul Ignacio Guastavino, the Argentinian Ambassador, says he looks at it not just as a promotion of the game, but also as a promotion of his country. “It’s a two-way win-win,” he says, calling India the “cradle of modern polo”. He acknowledges that even in Argentina it is an expensive sport, though the crowd support is “like a football game”.

While the facility is not in the heart of town — and takes you across dirt tracks, past Haryanvi women milking cows, and turbaned men smoking hookahs — it is accessible if you live in the suburbs.

For about ₹14,000, you will get 12 classes a month, and when you are ready to buy a horse, there are stabling facilities that include grooming, feeding, and vet cover at ₹25,000 a month.

“Right now, polo is in need of first-aid: horses, trucks to transport them, vets, grounds, opportunities, foreign players coming down and Indian players going abroad, openness, and a global awareness that this [India] is where polo began,” says Jindal. The more children that learn riding, the more will enter not only polo, but also others like eventing (dressage, cross-country, show-jumping), an Olympic sport.

 

The money game

Salim Mahmood, Deputy Director at Hindustan University, is one of the people responsible for polo’s revival in Chennai. He recalls it being a big sport in the ’70s, played at the Raj Bhawan and the Officers’ Training Academy (OTA). Today, OTA allows civilians to use the field on a Sunday. He himself learnt to ride late in life, in his 30s, when, after a trip to Kodaikanal, the touristy horses caught his attention.

“Horses are expensive, but we have an advantage in Chennai because of the racing track,” he says. Racing horses have a short life: they begin at age two or three and race for five years or so. “Once retired, we buy and retrain them for polo (or any other equestrian sport). Such a horse can cost anywhere from about ₹10,000 to ₹2 lakh, and can play for 10-12 years.” This is typically how it is done in India’s amateur circles.

An imported warm-blood horse (bred for equestrian sport) from Europe can cost anything from ₹40 lakh upwards. A polo pony from Argentina or New Zealand costs about ₹30 lakh upwards. Top grade horses can be in the region of several crores of rupees. Ideally, a horse should be bred for polo, but a polo pony will only start playing at age four or five, which means a bigger investment.

Mahmood and a group from Chennai plan to head to Argentina soon, for training. There are currently four teams in the city, but he is hopeful that with institutes like the Chennai Equitation Centre and the Madras School of Equitation (formerly Madras Riding Club), the number of children playing will increase. Meanwhile, in Bengaluru and Hyderabad, the army grounds are open to the general public for tournaments only during the season.

Teams and totals

In the early 1900s, there were 175 polo clubs; today there are 39 registered ones, says Joshi. (The national team is picked from the players registered with the Indian Polo Association, so there are no zonal or state-level matches). The problem is that now not too many people know about polo, its ancestry, or the fact that it is a 2,500-year-old sport that was actively played in the Punjab-Manipur belt, much before the British took it to other parts of the world. La Polo is attempting to take it to schools, and most recently visited Modern School, Delhi. Similarly, La Pegasus has a tie-up with Pathways School, Gurugram, to give kids access to the sport. In a smaller format of the game (150-yard x 70-yard), called arena polo, this is possible (a regular field is 300 yard x 200 yard).

Jindal sees polo as a bigger game. As it evolves, he says, “we intend to get into retail, lifestyle experiences (games in India and at the international level), even homes and entertainment around the idea”. The first of their experiences will be held on December 7, British High Commissioner’s Polo Day, with a friendly — between the British Army team and the Indian armed forces team — to commemorate 100 years of the Armistice. “There’ll be a sit-down lunch for 150 people, then we’ll have the game, followed by cocktails, dinner and dancing,” he says. Soon, they will also do a tour of Argentina, which will be reciprocated. “We’re then going to invite three teams, and do a triangular game,” he says. La Pegasus does PR and social media, both class-smashing tools.’

 

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Let’s play ball

 

British Polo Day began in Dubai in 2009, as an invite-only event held at select locations around the world. Jaipur and Jodhpur are on the list. Sponsors include names like Rajmahal Palace, Umaid Bhawan Palace, Beefeater London and Jaeger-LeCoultre. In India, the season begins in September in Jaipur, then October-November in Delhi, December in Jodhpur, January in Jaipur, February in Delhi, and March in Mumbai. Generally, the game is played with four players per team. A horse is never played for more than 10 minutes, and each game is divided into four to eight chukkers (bouts of seven minutes each), with a three-minute break between each. “This means each player needs at least four horses,” says Col Sirohi. Mahmood adds, “The best thing about polo is that everyone plays together — men and women, of all ages.” The team he plays on has a 14- and a 65-year-old.

 

Royal salute

Maharaja Padmanabh Singh, from the royal family of Jaipur, is the youngest on the Indian Polo team at 19. He is also the youngest to win the Indian Open Polo Cup.

What are you doing for polo in India?

I want to make Jaipur polo more international — I invite teams to play here and take the Jaipur team to various countries. This year, we’ve been to France and Chile. At the moment, we are playing the junior nationals in Delhi and I have about seven kids from schools around Rajasthan. We try and groom all the talent that’s coming up; that’s the only way for the sport to grow.

Polo is often associated with the elite.

Polo is for everybody. With the right talent, there are so many corporate houses willing to support players. Most major cities have academies: Rajasthan Polo Club in Jaipur, Greater Mahalaxmi Race Course in Mumbai, Jindal Academy in Noida, etc. Equestrian field is a friendly world; when someone asks me about polo, I invite them for a lesson.

What does polo mean to you?

For me, it is an addiction. It’s the most rewarding thing I’ve done — to be able to work with an animal, to be able to risk your life based on an animal. I don’t think there’s a more beautiful sport.

Siraj Attari, member of the Indian Polo Association board

"Hyderabad has had a huge culture of playing polo since 1876. We had 17 grounds up to the 1940s and ’50s. Today, there is just one [and the Bison Polo Ground, which belongs to the Army, out of bounds for civilians, except during the season, in September]. We play arena polo three times a week at the Hyderabad Polo and Riding Club, and there are plans to acquire 25 acres to create a ground. It’s good to see the youngsters [as young as 16] come and play. The Indian Polo Association is also trying to make an IPL-style league."