Autumn 2021

A NOVEL IDEA

Asad Jumabhoy of La Sarita Polo outlines a practical format for playing the FIP World Cup which would be easier to organise on all fronts

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hurlinghampolo.com

WPCSYDNEY.COM; ARMAND ALI

I n 2013, we had just finished the second of five Snow Polo World Cups

in Tianjin, China. As the principal point man for the Federation of International Polo (FIP), I was pleased with its success. I had negotiated the sponsorship package with fellow Executive Committee member Peter Yunghanns; we both flew to Hong Kong and Tianjin several times to seal the deal.

My trusted friends Peter Abisheganaden and Benjamin Araya spearheaded my operating committee as tournament director and master of horses respectively. We were grateful for the experience of organising and managing this high-quality international tournament. To the Snow Polo series we then added the Super Nations Cup, played during the grass season in Tianjin.

With hindsight, one must view this as an inflection point in the game of polo. Lots of new players were emerging, the economic backdrop had altered after the financial crisis, and the technology boom was just beginning. A changing of the guard was taking place, passing from an older generation of patrons to a new set of enthusiasts keen to learn and play internationally. There was a growing awareness of the sport fuelled by magazines, which led to an online migration to social media and other specialist channels. In short, we saw a more connected world for polo starting to take shape.

The FIP marketing committee, which I chaired, was intellectually agile and commercially experienced. My team – including Bruce Colley, Don Pennycook, Roderick Vere Nicoll and Wesley Ru – understood the need to reconsider how the game could be organised in this new era, especially on an international level. FIP’s founders (and my lifelong mentors), Glen Holden and Marcos Uranga had envisioned a global polo community, and we wanted to uphold this mission.

We realised that if FIP was serious about creating competition and promoting the game, we needed to drum up excitement, events and participation right across member countries. With encouragement from

A CHANGING OF THEGUARD WAS TAKINGPLACE, PASSING FROM ANOLDER GENERATION TO ANEW SET OF ENTHUSIASTS

Opposite: England’s Peter Webb (centre) at the 11th World Cup, in Sydney Australia. Left: Asad at the Royal Selangor Polo Club, 2007

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