With the advent of the Covid-19 vaccine and controlled positive cases in Rajasthan, the long-awaited Jaipur Winter Polo Season finally kicked off today at the State Polo Club in the city. As per reports, the 61st cavalry ground will be an added location for the tournaments besides RPC. Starting a month later than the slated timeline, the polo season is scheduled for a period of four weeks and will end on February 28.
16-goal polo tournament makes a comeback after 20 years!
Reportedly, a polo player informed that the pinnacle point for the season is the 16-goal Jaipur open tournament, that’s being organised from February 15-21. The tournament would witness the players competing against each other for the coveted Sawai Bhawani Singh Jaipur Cup. It would be after two decades that a 16-goal tournament will be played in Jaipur, the last game was played during the India Open Championship in 2001. In the last few years, the 14-goal Sirmour cup was the highest handicap event which would be held from February 8-14 this year.
The season would be initiated with the 10-goal Maharaja Sawai Man Singh Gold Vase tournament slated to be held from February 1-7. Subsequently, the 6-goal Kota Cup and the 10-goal Rajmata Gayatri Devi Memorial Cup would be played from February 8-21 & February 22-28 respectively. The season would also witness exhibition matches like Padmini Devi Jaipur International Shield 13, Prithvi Singh Bariya Cup 20 amongst others.
Special Ladies’ Polo Match to be held on February 27
The last Jaipur Polo season included a Ladies’ polo match for encouraging girls and women towards the sport of horse polo. Given its success in the previous year and the high enthusiasm amongst the players, the event held under the name of Princess Diya Kumari Foundation Ladies’ Polo would be repeated on February 27 this time.
Participation by top polo players in various tournaments
As suggested by the reports, amongst the most appreciated players participating in the season this year will be Argentina’s Juan Augustine Garcia Grossi, Manuel Fernandez Llorente, Simran Singh Shergill, Abhimanyu Pathak, Danniel Otamendi, Lt. Col Vishal Chauhan, Dhruvpal Godara, Col Ravi Rathore, Siddhant Sharma, Padmanabh Singh, Samir Suhag, Syed Shamsheer Ali, Syed Hamza Ali, Salim Azmi, Angad Kalaan, Lt. Col. Arjun Patil, Syed Basheer Ali Lokendra Rathore, Gaurav Sahgal, Col. Navjit Singh Sandhu, Naveen Singh and some officers from the Indian Army.
