LAHORE - Lahore Polo Club (LPC) president Haye Mehta said that current polo season is just going to enter into its peak sphere wherein top-ranked national and international players would participate in at least five high-profile events being held on Pakistan soil.
It is a good omen that international polo players have been visiting Pakistan and participating in historic polo tournaments. Though war-on-terror has curb sports activities in the country since many years and players of popular games like cricket, hockey and other sports abandoned to land Pakistan soil on the back of fear and terror concerns but with the aspiration of international polo players to participate in high-profile tournaments, it is expected that players of other sports would also follow them and Pakistan would once again become hub of sports activities.
In an interview with The Nation, Mehta said: "Out of 36 tournaments, 16 were organised successfully and 20 are yet to be conducted. The next five tournaments are very high-goal and grand events and will be featured by international players. The mega events include 12-goal Clarks Polo Cup and Nabi Yousuf Memorial Polo Cup while the remaining three are 14-goal events which include Aibak Polo Cup (1977), Borjan Punjab Polo Cup, the oldest event of the country as it was first conducted in 1886, and the height of delight Quaid-e-Azam Gold Cup National Polo Championship (1963). These tournaments will be treated to watch for the spectators who will witness quality polo game during these events."
Speaking about international players’ participation in the high-profile events, Mehta said: "The highly experienced international players have already reached the city and they will be seen in action along with top players of the country during these events. The local players will certainly learn a lot while playing along with experienced and high-handicap foreign players.”
"Hissam Ali Hyder is one of our top players while others worthy to watch during the high-profile events are Ahmad Ali Tiwana, Shah Qublai Alam, Shah Shamyl Alam, Saqib Khakwani and others. I hope they will do their best to make the events more thrilling and interesting," he added.
Talking about grounds situation, the LPC president said: "The condition of the grounds is highly improved. I would like to reveal that grounds have 60 to 65 per cent role in the matches and rest is up to horses and players. We paid great attention to improve the condition of the grounds and we are quite successful in doing so. This time, we have quality grounds and players would like to play in such sterling grounds."
About riding school, Mehta said: “The Lahore Polo Club is packed with local and foreign horses and has more than 36 Argentinean horses and also providing all the basic and modern standard facilities to the polo enthusiasts. The club’s riding school is going great, training and producing quality polo players. We have almost 200 kids riding the horses in the club which assures that future of the game is quite bright in the country,” he concluded.