A final-year student, Gaurav Sahgal divides his time between playing polo and taking care of his father’s stud farm. Pic by Jagan Negi

It’s been a long hard ride for polo player Abhimanyu Pathak. He didn’t have family money to back his burning desire to play polo at a professional level. But today he’s galloping after the ball in polo fields around the world and earning enough to own and feed a string of horses. “I didn’t have a coach and would watch other players and copy them,” says Pathak, about his first year at Delhi’s Army Polo and Riding Club.

Cut to Major Vishal Chauhan, 29, who’s been picking up a string of Most Valuable Player awards. He’s one of the stars of the Indian polo team and has just had a particularly good season.

Abhimanyu Pathak is a full-time professional polo player and has played the last three summers in England. Photograph courtesy: Christine Pemberton

Chauhan and Pathak are among the next generation of polo players who’re taking the field. Also riding to the top are youngsters like Gaurav Sahgal, Zahan Kapoor and Angad Singh.

“They are young, energetic, dynamic and good competition to their seniors in the game,” says Colonel K.S. Garcha, founder of the Jaipur Riding and Polo Club. Garcha has been playing polo since 1963 and coached the Indian teams that made it to the World Cup finals in 1995 and 2000.

Take a look at Sahgal, 20, who’s already played in top level games and won a string of trophies. He (along with Pathak and Chauhan) has been picked to play the (Federation of International Polo) FIP World Polo Cup this year. Sahgal hit the international polo scene at 16 and helped to win the India Vs Barbados series in the Caribbean in 2007. His big moment came when he captained the winning Indian junior polo team in 2008 against England and won the Most Valuable Player award.

(From top) Zahan Kapoor won a Most Promising Youngster award when he was just 17; Angad Singh, 23, comes from a long line of polo players

Another player rising in the polo ratings is 18-year-old Zahan Kapoor — grandson of actor Shashi Kapoor — who rode away with the Indian Polo Association’s Most Promising Youngster award in 2009. He also helped his team pick up the Bhopal Pataudi Cup in the same year playing for Jindal Steel & Power and he has played in tournaments in Malaysia and Indonesia. Says Garcha: “Kapoor is doing very well for his age with a +1 handicap and he’s a very graceful player.”

While many of these youngsters are second generation players, Angad Singh, 23, the grandson of a former Punjab chief minister is a third generation player. A graduate from Delhi’s Sri Venkateshwara College, Singh started riding when he was four and competed in equestrian events like jumping and dressage at Lawrence School, Sanawar, where he studied. “I started playing exhibition tournaments to get the hang of the game,” says Singh, who’s still an amateur and who’s played nearly 75 teams since 2006.

All these players divide their time between India and other countries like England, Australia and Argentina depending on when the season takes place. Singh, for instance, played in the Saragarhi Cup tournament in Berkshire, England — it was a fundraiser for impoverished farmers in Punjab. He then returned for the Jaipur and Delhi seasons. He also went to England in 2009 and played at the Tidworth Polo Club in the off season.

Making it on the polo field involves hours of intense practice. Kapoor, for instance, is not a full-time polo player — he’s an assistant director with a film production house — but he practices for two hours in the morning and evening at Mumbai’s Mahalaxmi Racecourse. That involves riding and also lots of exercises. He also spends time sitting on a stationery wooden horse and practising his swing. At about noon he heads to work.

Similarly, Singh rides for two hours each morning and in the winters plays practice tournaments for another two hours.

Major Vishal Chauhan is one of the army’s top players and has played polo in as many as 12 countries. Pic by Rashbehari Das

The fact is that polo is an expensive sport. So it’s not surprising that most of these youngsters have been supported by their families. “Singh and Sahgal’s fathers were players so the sport is in their blood, and Chauhan’s army background helped him,” says Major Adhiraj Singh, one of India’s top players, whose firm Equisport Management promotes polo in India.

Sahgal practices at Delhi’s Army Equestrian Centre and has 16 horses. “A trained polo pony costs between Rs 5 lakh and Rs 7 lakh,” he says. “Since our horses are in the racecourses I prefer to pull them out from there and train them,” says Sahgal, who divides time between running the stud farm and playing polo.

Kapoor, who has six ponies, says frankly: “I’ve been fortunate that my dad has supported me. Now, at a semi-professional level, I get compensation for transportation of my horses.”

As an army officer, Chauhan can depend on a huge institution to back him. He’s been issued eight horses — his favourite is one named Orangie. “Officers get horses from the army stud farms. The army also provides for transportation and maintenance,” says Colonel Garcha.

Pathak is almost the odd man out because he had to earn his way on his own. As soon as the season ends in India, around the end of March, he takes two weeks off. From mid-April to August he plays in the UK, where he earns 10 times what he does India. He returns to India around September.

In college, Pathak worked in a call centre to finance himself. His luck turned when he met an Australian player who advised him to try and get into a team in Australia. Pathak went there, played tournaments, made his contacts and money and began playing professionally. Pathak reckons it costs about Rs 2.5 lakh to Rs 4 lakh to buy semi-trained horses locally. Says Pathak: “I invest what I earn from playing abroad in my horses. I also take loans from sponsors for a season in advance to buy horses.”

Garcha says it costs about Rs 10,000 a month to maintain a horse. “Players generally get their horses from racecourses in Delhi, Mumbai, Calcutta, Hyderabad, Bangalore or import them from Argentina, Australia or New Zealand,” he says.

For several decades polo was unaffordable for most civilians and had gone into decline. It’s been staging a resurgence over the last decade. And the younger players on the field are a sign that things can get better.