India's best on the chukkers
Col 'Pickles' Sodhi picks his favourite polo players in the country today
| Today's polo players are extremely hardworking: a far cry from their image as playboys "" an image which is only partly true! Unlike cricket or football, polo is a contact sport and players can sustain really brutal injuries. Personally, I don't think there's a bone in my body that I haven't broken. |
| Although we still have a long way to go to in professional polo, we now have more 5-handicap players than ever before. Here are some of the players who set the polo field alight every time they play, and they're likely to be around for a while. |
| Brothers Uday and Angad Kalan: Their father, Colonel Raj Kalan, famously used to play polo as well and was in my regiment, 61st Cavalry, so the brothers grew up around polo. |
| The two Kalans are very different: the elder, Uday, started earlier, while Angad developed an interest somewhat later, and they've both got different styles, with Angad playing in forward positions and Uday playing at the back, but they're both now at the top of their profession. |
| Samir Suhag: Samir's father, General Bhim Suhag was in the Army Service Corps. Samir's a consistent player, capable of playing in almost any position: on his good days he's probably at the top of his league. |
| His brother also used to play, but stopped some time back; Samir continued though, and is now on the Jindal team and one of the steadiest and most consistent players we have. |
| Brothers Basheer and Shamsheer Ali: They're from Hyderabad, a place where polo has been popular since the days of the British Raj. |
| Basheer and Shamsheer are both extremely talented and have great co-ordination. They're both also the fastest we have, playing flat out most of the time, with excellent stickwork to match. They've got a handicap of five as well, and a very bright future. |
| The Ali brothers, like the Kalan brothers and many other players today, don't play for a specific team but freelance and drift to wherever they're wanted season to season, and accept the best offers. |
| Vishal Singh: Son of Colonel Y K Singh from Jaipur, also incidentally from my regiment, Vishal owns some of the best horses in India. |
| He buys the best and he schools them very well, and this is important considering that the horse is about 70 per cent of the game. |
| There's really no substitute for the personal equation a polo player has with the horses he uses: it's not just about the hour or so that he spends playing, it's about grooming and training his horses, feeding them, treating their injuries and so on. |
| Preparing and training for the game actually stretches for hours before and after anyone steps on to a playing field: in the summer you have to start schooling them from five in the morning, and in the winter at six. It's really quite gruelling. |
| Lokendra Singh, and brothers Manu Pal and Dhruv Pal: Lokendra Singh is from Rajasthan, and Dhruv and Manu are from Delhi and the sons of Colonel Udai Pal Godhra, also from the 61st Cavalry. |
| These three players are at the top of their league in polo today and have outstanding ball control and good horsemanship. |