April 18, 2007	Wednesday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 29, 1428

Please Visit our Sponsor (Ads open in separate window)

LAHORE, April 17: Manager of the Jaipur Polo Club, India Col. Kuldeep Singh Garcha sees limited resources as the only constraint in the bright future of the game in the two neighboring countries.

"Both countries have good players but as the game needs a heavy budget, to buy fine horses and to maintain long fields, we still have to remove financial constraints to compete with top countries," said Garcha, who arrived with a six-member squad of Jaipur Club to play a three-match series against the Lahore Polo Club from Tuesday to Saturday.

"But getting more exposure this problem can be removed.

We are getting good sponsors for the club and that is a good sign, furthermore horse ridingclasses are going in different schools, providing good lot of players," he said

"The Jaipur Club has a strength of 70 to 80 players that show how the game of Maharajas is still grooming there," he said.

He said there was a good competition of polo in India among clubs in Jaipur, Dehli and Mumbai.

He said the two countries could tender a joint bid to host the World Cup qualifiers.

While Garcha said coaching level in India was not so high, the Lahore Polo Club president Abdul Qadir Mamdot said Pakistan had a well qualified Argentinean coach working at the Mona Depot. The Argentinean, he said was currently training 20 to 25 polo players.

Garcha also praised the LPC for maintaining all three grounds of the club.

"It is my fifth visit to the LPC and I found immaculate playing areas and also the club has succeeded in attracting the sponsors," he said.

The JPC squad comprises players namely Ransher Singh Rathor (2 goal player), Abhimanyu Pathak (2), Bhupender Singh Rathore (1), Shehzad Abbas Syed Ali (1), Rakshit Agnihotri (1).