LAHORE: Pakistan’s premier polo event, the 52nd Bank Alfalah National Polo Championship for the Quaid-e-Azam Gold Cup, will roll into action at the Lahore Polo Club here from Tuesday.

As many as seven teams are featuring in the two-week event, being played in the event which will conclude on March 15. The tournament will be organised on Full League system with top two teams on the points ladder playing the final.

The National Championship is the elite event of the national calendar and is played in the handicap limit of 10-14 goals. The high-goals polo events of the season culminate in the National Polo Championship and all top notch teams and players prepare for months to win the coveted trophy.

“With six foreign players in action, four of them from Argentina, we are looking at a very exciting tournament,” Lahore Polo Club president Abdul Haye Mehta said at a press conference on Monday.

First organised in 1963 by Brig. Hissam El Effendi as the El Effendi Polo Cup, the tournament got its current name in 1977.

Late Captain (retd) Azhar Ali holds the honour of playing for 10 championship-winning teams while Hissam Ali Hyder, Pakistan’s best ranked player at present, has the honour of playing for seven championship-winning teams.

The defending champions are Colony Sugar with the other teams namely Daewoo Pakistan, Newage/Master Paints, Guard Group, Royal Residencia/Learning Alliance, Master Paints, Wi Tribe Shahsawars and Army/Bank Alfalah.

Published in Dawn March 3rd , 2015

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