Gentleman’s sport: Polo picks up pace in the capital

New private polo ground’s coach says sport is becoming popular among youngsters.

ISLAMABAD: When the polo academy opened its membership, the count went from zero to fifty-four members in less than eight months. In a bid to revive the sport, Marcus Hancock, coach of the Islamabad Polo Team, said the sport was gaining popularity in the city quicker than he expected.

Last weekend, on a bright sunny afternoon, sounds of galloping horses and accompanying cheers from the audience echoed from the newly inaugurated private polo ground on Club Road. Even though the sport is in its rudimentary stages in the city, ardent players have managed to form teams and shuffle players to play different matches to maintain momentum.



“It is an entertaining sport,” said Anam Ali, who had come to see the match with her family for the first time.

“Polo originated from this region, we are just trying to bring it back,” said Hancock, who came to Pakistan last year to coach a polo team in Lahore. The sport has been popular in Lahore and Rawalpindi, but Islooites rarely had a chance to witness the game in their own city.

Hancock has been in Islamabad since earlier this year and believes the sport will gain popularity in the coming months. He said those starting early have great potential to become professional players. “We are encouraging a new generation of young polo players to modernise the sport in the country,” he said.

Seventeen-year-old Salar Khan has been training for 10 years and recently won the Colonel Safdar Memorial Award in Rawalpindi. Excited about the new addition of the polo ground in the capital, he said his friends who were into just riding earlier are now joining the bandwagon and learning the gentlemen’s sport.

“This is only because we have a facility now,” he added.

More than 20 to 30 people come to practice at the ground everyday, said 23-year-old Asfandyar Khan who picked up the sport earlier this year. Khan said members of the club are as young as eight years old.  “Lahore has an intense polo scene, but with this facility and addition of so many new members, I think Islamabad too will get there very soon,” he said.

The club’s manager, Raja Nadeem, said the overwhelming response of members may lead to a shortage of horses.

“We have classes in the morning and evening, and are running short on horses,” said Nadeem, who has played a couple of international polo cups for Pakistan. “We are hoping that children get addicted to the sport, he added.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 28^th, 2014.