LAHORE, Dec 23: Qualifying Round Group D matches of the World Polo Cup will be held at the Lahore Polo Club grounds from Dec 5 to 13, 2003.

For the first time, Pakistan has been honoured to host the very important matches at a meeting of the Federation of International Polo (FIP) held at Buenos Aires (Argentina) this month in preference to South Africa, which had also made a bid to hold the matches.

A three-member delegation, headed by the Pakistan Polo Association (PPA) chairman Major-General Khalid Naeem, made the formal bid at the meeting in Argentina.

The delegation included Ishaq Khakwani (LPC  president) and Bashir Ahmad (Pakistan’s representative  in the FIP). All three of them briefed mediamen polo club offices at a press briefing Sunday.

Khalid Naeem said that Pakistan had to face tough opposition from South Africa because that country possessed better grounds, polo ponies, infra-structure and facilities.

India had hosted the qualifying round matches at Jaipur last year but there were a lot many complaints of favouring the host country’s players as against teams of other countries by giving them higher quality ponies.

The  PPA president assured the house during the meeting that General Pervez Musharraf, in his capacity as president of the Pakistan  Polo Association (PPA) had assured all-out support, on his behalf and on behalf of the Pakistan Army, for hosting the matches in a befitting manner and providing high-quality  ponies to the participating teams.

Ishaq Khakwani said that on Pakistan delegation’s request, an amendment has been made in the FIP rules that if there were  any complaints about providing ponies of lesser quality to the visiting teams as against better horses to the host team, all matches of that pool would be scrapped.

The Group D includes countries from continents of Africa, Asia, Oceania (Australia) and New Zealand and also Far East.

Only one team will qualify from Group D for the final round of the World Cup to be held at Paris (France) in September, 2004.

While replying to a question, Major-General Khalid Naeem said that a lot of work needed to be done to bring the standard of grounds, infra-structure and  other facilities at  the  LPC  to international standard.

However, the PPA and LPC  officials  had resolved to make the occasion memorable for the foreign teams and Pakistani lovers of the game.

“Polo in Pakistan can get a boost by hosting a world-class event like that and the we will leave no stone unturned”, concluded the PPA chairman.