It’s that time of the year when Delhi’s creme-de-la-creme come together, week after week to celebrate sports and fashion. The Winter Polo Season has officially kickstarted with the I.L.A. Pasrich & Company Bhopal Pataudi Polo Cup 2016. A week long tournament which began with 8 teams competing for the prestigious cup culminated into a nail-biting semi-finals, and enthralling finals at the Jaipur Polo Grounds over the weekend, presented by Shivani Wazir Pasrich Productions.
The Winter Polo Season is an important landmark in the Delhi Events calendar and awaited with great anticipation by the sporting and fashion world. Attended by about 1000 of the city’s elite, the season attracts the best players in India. Keeping true to the old tradition, the Bhopal Pataudi Polo Cup is an old tournament, designed to nurture amateurs, who participate along with professionals.
The ball for the Law & Justice Exhibition Match, which began at 3pm was thrown in by Justice A.K. Sikri and British High Commissioner, H.E Sir Dominic Asquith preceded the final cup was played between team I.L.A Pasrich & Company, against Team Air India. The afternoon began with the Air India team scoring the first goal of the match and this was quickly followed up by an equalizer from the I.L.A Pasrich & Company team. The next goal was scored by Amir Singh Pasrich as a penalty hit from the sixty yard mark so that the I.L.A Pasrich & Company team gained an advantage and had a 2 – 1 lead that they maintained until yet another goal was scored leading to the final score of 3-1. Ameera Pasrich made her debut on the Jaipur Polo Ground riding a horse called Taqdeer, a Kathiawari who enjoys the distinction of being the only pure Indian bred horse on the field. As a first performance on field as big as the Jaipur Polo Grounds , Ameera kept up with the game, stopped the ball a couple of time and participated carefully without giving any fouls against her team.
Ten children from The Smile Foundation were invited to experience the Polo fever – the kids interacted with Lt. General M.S. Sandhu who introduced them to the game of polo. The children were given an opportunity to see the polo players, up-close and personal prepping for the match, while he briefed them on the game, the rules and the preparation that goes into a match. The Children were left spellbound, making this an experience they will treasure and remember well into their lives.. Later they painted their experience on canvas, which was displayed in The Smile Foundation booth at the venue for the guests to view.
Two nail-biting semi-final matches were played at the Jaipur Polo Grounds on Saturday, October 22nd, 2016. Sona Polo and Jindal Panthers won the semi-finals against Hyderabad Chaughan and Star Mercantile, in their respective matches to secure a place in the prestigious I.L.A. Pasrich & Company Bhopal Pataudi Polo Cup finals. Jindal Panther emerged winners of the final tournament beating Sona Polo by 8 goals to 4 ½. Vandit Golecha was adjudged Most Talented Young Player and Mare Kavya ridden by Abhimanyu Pathak adjudged Best Polo Pony of the match. The ball for the final match which began at 4:15pm was thrown in by the CEO of NITI Aayog, Mr. Amitabh Kant.
Present on the occasion were CEO of NITI Aayog, Mr. Amitabh Kant and Mrs. Ranjeeta Kant, Justice A.K. Sikri, H.E. Sir Dominic Asquith the British High Commissioner and Lady Louise Asquith, Mriganka Kumari of Kashmir, fashion icon Ritu Kumar, Mrs. Neelam Rudy, Vandy and Manoj Mehra of SBJ, H.E. Lorenzo Angeloni, the Ambassador of Italy, H.E. Tovar da Silva Nunes, the Ambassador of Brazil, Padmashri Jawahar Wattal, Christine and Kazim Samandari from L’Opera, Pooja and Atul Chauhan of Amity, Arpana Sharma of the iconic television show Khoobsurat, Naveen and Shallu Jindal with their danseuses daughter Yashasvini Jindal, Sunjay Kapur, Mr. Rajeev Bhandari – Resident Commissioner of Punjab and Mrs. Rakhi Bhandari –JS Ministry of Minority Affairs, Col Ranjit Singh from the National Human Rights Commission, Parmeet & Simran Sawhney of Toninos, Mr. Rajeet Nabha, Mr. Gareth Lungley Counsellor Political and Dr. Daniel Bradley (with wife Dr. Dakshina Gammanpila) from the British High Commission, Simran & Harkeerat Singh of Woodlands, Petra and Andre Van Rheenen of BMW, Chhaya Shriram of Usha, Kusum and Sushil Ansal and artist Veer Munshi.
As the guests treaded the ground between matches, designer Ritu Kumar made the selection of the best dressed man and woman. Lucky Draw winners were selected by Punjabi popstar, Sukh-E, padmashri Jawahar Wattal and Arpana Sharma. Winners won gifts and for a special childrens lucky draw, The Study School had a surprise. The Sundown Party was a pop-up “TAMASHA Lounge” hosted by Priyank Sukhija, Gundeep Anand and Jaideep Anand.
