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The oldest Polo Club in the world - India, 2009 Four silver cups were taken out carefully with white gloves from their plexiglas dome. They were placed in a room on the ground floor of a huge building business center of Calcutta. Keshav Bangura, the new President of the Calcutta Polo Club, moved like a Maharaja on his throne in white leather 'Do you know that the biggest cup on my left is the oldest polo trophy in the world? It dates from 1880 and worth more than € 100,000. Dozens of Westerners, he insists,wanted to buy it. I have always refused to sale it. The oldest trophy must remain the exclusive property of the oldest Polo Club in the World ". This money, the Club nee for sure. The grandeur of the pat seems to have evaporated. Some young students train near the stables under a motorway. Two kilometers away, the official stands are crumbling, the dressing rooms are limited to a small shed and the glorious field of Calcutta Polo Club is like a common military training field. The coach, a former cavalry officer of the Indian Army, does not seem taken aback by the poor decor. As its President, Keshav Bangura, he proudly defied the camera. They are both convinced that in a short amount of time amazing parties will take place during the polo games on the Pat Willimanson Ground and that all the affluent society of Calcutta will rush on the field at half time to show off by giving up gracefully clods of earth torn by horses' hooves. |
