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SPORTS:
POLO
India's
Charge
A spirited
team qualifies for the World Cup and gives the sport of kings a fresh
momentum
By
Rohit Parihar
India
VERSUS Pakistan for a single place in the World Cup finals. Last man standing
and all that stuff. Star Indian player scores a goal, gets his hand smashed
and is escorted off the field, his thumb a bloody mess. Long years of
painful sporting memories dictate that the match should go down as a victory
to Pakistan and the next day's headlines read, "Injury to star costs
India heavily". Dhruvpal Godara will have none of it. He tells the
doctors to hurry up, and 10 minutes later, pressure bandage in place,
is back on the field. Scores a hat-trick and leads India to a 11-5 1/2
victory. Only then does he allow doctors to put in four stitches on the
hand. Smiles with straw-chewing cool and declares, "I am very aggressive
on the field.''
 |
| India
vs Pakistan in the crunch match in jaipur |
This is talk
miles removed from the Indian experience in cricket or hockey. Thanks
to Godara, India beat four other nations with polo traditions (Pakistan,
New Zealand, South Africa and Singapore) to win the prestigious Baleno
World Cup Polo Challenge 2000 in Jaipur this week. It was the regional
qualifying event for the sport's World Cup final. Rarely does the country
do so well internationally; India has now qualified for the six-team World
Cup finals (Melbourne, March-April 2001) after a gap of five years. The
tussle for the lone qualifying spot came down to India versus Pakistan
in which 24-year-old Godara did his scene-stealing number.
The match
was played to a packed gallery, some reckoned there were 30,000 people
packed ten deep in parts of the sprawling ground. Spectators clambered
up trees to watch the Indians take an early lead and hold on to win what
turned out to be the virtual final of the tournament. When the hooter
went, sealing an Indian victory, the crowd swarmed onto the polo field
in a wave of celebration. Old hands said they had seen nothing like it
in three decades.
Once the
celebrations were over Arvind Singh Mewar of Udaipur royalty raised doubts
of a repeat performance in the World Cup. "It will be a repeat of
the Olympics. Doing well at home and flopping abroad.'' Adhiraj Singh
of event promoters Equisport differs, "Standards have improved in
India and personally I hope we finish among the first three in Melbourne.
I think we could be the dark horses."
Melbourne
and the World Cup will be an altogether different matter as the Indians
will be lined up against the best in the business, not the least, the
formidable Argentinians. Australia have qualified as hosts and another
strong team England is expected to win its zonal play-offs. Not only is
the competition fierce, Godara & Co will also have to quickly get
used to the horses provided to them by the host nation, as per World Cup
rules.
The Good
News and the Bad: In Jaipur, those rules worked in India's favour
as the team had had 45 days of practice with the 160-odd horses that were
distributed to the contesting teams. The good news is that the Indian
team will have plenty of match practice going into the big event as the
polo season continues all the way to mid-March. However, the downside
is that the team will go different ways now and turn out for their club
teams, getting together again only before leaving for Australia. Singh
has a suggestion for the powers that be: "The ideal scenario would
be to bring the team together a month before the World Cup and have them
play competitively against players of similar standard if possible."
India's
hopes for the World Cup rest on its two new stars: five-handicapper Godara,
declared Most Valuable Player in Jaipur with 23 goals, and 18-year-old
teammate Shamshir Ali. Ali, the son of a real-estate businessman from
Hyderabad was the second-highest scorer, with 16 goals including one in
the first minute against Pakistan.
Where does
Indian polo go from here? Glen Holden, president of the Federation of
International Polo, was lavish in his praise, saying, "This is one
of the best held events anywhere in the world in the past 15 years.''
He added that India was "ready" to host a World Cup final. The
sport's financial health depends on corporate funding, and Equisport's
Singh hopes funds will flow from tobacco and liquor firms, which are not
allowed to advertise on TV. "I expect companies to use polo players
to project macho images and fun in their commercials.'' The sport pays
its pros well: four-plus handicappers like Godara and Ali can earn Rs
40,000 plus per match and play up to 25 matches in a season. In Jaipur
sponsors spent Rs 40 lakh on the World Cup play-offs, including both the
brass tacks and a furious round of parties.
The presence
of the Pakistani team added spice to the event since the neighbours have,
shall we say, "issues". In 1994 India refused to play Pakistan
in Pakistan, and after an offer from Malaysia, the match was held in Australia.
This time round there were no objections. Shah Shamyl Alam, a four-handicapper,
said, while he enjoyed coming to India and had friends on the rival squad,
"I do not like the atmosphere being surcharged as if enemies were
to play the game". A diffident Pakistani opponent? Maybe this is
a sport India should pay more attention to.
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