Exclusive | President’s Polo Cup: Bodyguard clinch thriller in Delhi as tradition, legacy and top talent converge

The 2025 edition of the President’s Polo Cup concluded the Delhi Fall Polo Season with one of the closest finishes the national capital has seen in recent years.

Held on Saturday, November 29, 2025 at the historic President’s Bodyguard (PBG) parade ground at the Ridge Forest, the match drew a distinguished audience, including President Droupadi Murmu, who watched the game unfold from the sidelines of the regiment’s lush, tree-lined estate.

The Cup, established in 1975, has long been regarded as one of India’s most prestigious polo traditions.

The Bodyguard team edged past the Lancers 7-6 in four tight chukkers, with the momentum shifting multiple times before the final whistle.

For the PBG, which has been steadily rebuilding its footprint in Indian polo, the win marked another milestone in this polo season.

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This year’s Bodyguard team brought together a special mix of talent comprising:

• Colonel Amit Berwal (-1), Commandant of the President’s Bodyguard

• Naveen Jindal (0), parliamentarian and long-time pillar of Indian polo

• Sawai Padmanabh Singh (+4), current India team member and patron of Jaipur Polo

• Simran Singh Shergill (+4), India team stalwart and 2019 Arjuna Awardee

Opposing them, the Lancers fielded their own formidable quartet of current and former India players:

• Siddhant Sharma (+4), India team player

• Angad Kalaan (+2), veteran and former India team player

• Dfr. Sukhjeet Singh (0), a rising PBG professional

• Captain AP Singh (+1), captain of the Indian Navy polo team

For many players, returning to this ground carries a personal resonance beyond the scoreboard. Few embody this connection more deeply than Angad Kalaan, whose ties to the PBG stretch back to his childhood.

“So my association with the President’s Bodyguard goes back to my father basically. He was Adjutant here and when I first started playing polo was at the President’s Estate Polo Club, on this very ground that we had the game today,” he told Firstpost after the match.

His early exposure to the regiment shaped more than just his riding. “I learned how to ride here, made some very good friends here. I mean practically my initial years of polo say about almost a decade I spent on this ground, on these trails playing polo.”

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Kalaan’s polo journey began in 1993, though his presence around the club predated that by several years.

“I started playing in 1993 but before that my father was always here so I would come to the ground. I basically watched a lot of polo here and then took it up only in 1993 and played right up till the time the club was existent, till it moved to the 61st Cavalry.”

Today, after nearly three decades in the sport, he continues to compete across major seasons.

“I’ve been playing polo for almost 30 years now. I played in the September Jaipur season, and now I will be playing in the January-February season in Jaipur as well.”

His family legacy — through Colonel Rajinder Kumar Singh “Raj” Kalaan, the renowned 61st Cavalry commandant credited with reviving polo in Mongolia — mirrors the storied military lineage that has long supported the sport in India.

Kalaan’s brother Uday, now a veteran polo player himself, was also a top player in the Indian team. Uday, along with Colonel Navjit Sandhu (Retd), former commander of the 61st Cavalry, was the umpire for Saturday’s match.

If the Kalaans’ connection to the PBG is generational, for Naveen Jindal, it is foundational.

For nearly four decades, this ground has been central to his polo life.

“I have now been playing polo for almost 38 years and this is the place where I started to ride and started to play polo. So I owe a lot to this President’s Bodyguard and the President’s Estate,” he told Firstpost.

“There used to be a President’s Estate Polo Club here.” Watching the ceremonial riders of the PBG inspired him as a young equestrian.

“This is where I learned and started to play polo and this is a beautiful place in the middle of Delhi… To see these tall handsome riders on these horses is a very inspiring sight and then I see the President’s Bodyguard riders doing show jumping, dressage, and playing polo. So I was very inspired by them and I also started to ride and slowly slowly play polo.”

In recent years, players and administrators across the polo community have taken note of the PBG’s renewed momentum, much of it driven by Colonel Amit Berwal and supported visibly by the President herself.

When asked about this resurgence, Jindal said, “I would say that the Commandant of PBG, Colonel Amit Berwal has taken a lot of initiative and President Murmu, she has encouraged polo and all the equestrian sports. So that is something really good and when she comes here and watches her troops, her Bodyguards come and play and take active part in sports, that’s really encouraging for them.”

This encouragement, he said, extends beyond the regiment. “Not only for them, for the whole country, for all the youth in the country that you know she is encouraging and she’s being there, she’s going out there to spend time with them. So it’s really encouraging and inspiring.”

Jindal’s own influence in the sport — often informally described as that of a patron-in-chief — is one he views as responsibility rather than title.

“So polo is my first love and it has given me a lot. So I owe a lot to the sport, and polo is India’s gift to the world. So it is our duty that we must encourage and we must support polo and that polo once again must take the place of pride in India.”

He noted the wider progress visible in recent years. “So now with the efforts of everyone in the Indian Polo Association, President’s Bodyguards and the corporates here, the level of polo is improving in India and I hope in the years to come that many players will take up the sport.”

For younger players within the regiment, the President’s Cup is not just a tournament — it is an aspiration.

Among them, Dfr. Sukhjeet Singh stands out as one of the PBG’s rising polo talents.

“I have been with the President’s Bodyguard since 2006 and started playing polo in 2012 and was given the opportunity to play competitive polo from 2019 onwards,” he told Firstpost.

Hailing from Gurdaspur in Punjab, Singh has trained in South Africa as part of the Indian Army's outreach in polo and now balances the demanding schedule of a PBG soldier with the rigours of competitive polo.

“Because I love this sport so much, I make sure I take out extra time from our busy schedules to practice polo.”

Playing alongside some of the country’s top names, he added, remains a privilege. “I feel proud to play polo. Your riding skills also get upgraded. Plus playing with all these top polo players makes me feel truly blessed.”

The President’s Cup, since its inception in 1975, has been closely tied to the evolution of Indian polo. The inaugural edition, held in February 1975 and attended by then-President Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed and Begum Abida Ahmed, quickly became a premier national event.

Over the next three decades, the PBG’s stewardship helped the tournament flourish. The hiatus following the IPA’s transition to the 61st Cavalry in 2004 paused that trajectory, but its revival in 2013 as an exhibition match ensured the Cup retained its competitive relevance.

The 2025 Delhi Fall Polo Season (October 15, 2025 to November 29, 2025) itself has been one of the busiest in recent memory, hosting ten tournaments ranging from 2-goal fixtures to the high-stakes 14-goal events that drew the country’s best professionals as well as a select few players internationally.

A highlight of the season was the dramatic India-Argentina match at the Jaipur Polo Ground in New Delhi, where the hosts clinched a 10-9 victory — a significant moment for Indian polo.

As the season now shifts to Jaipur, then Jodhpur, and back again before returning to Delhi in the spring, the President’s Polo Cup stands as a fitting transition point.

For the PBG — one of the world’s oldest surviving mounted units — the Cup is not merely an annual fixture.

It is a reaffirmation of its enduring relationship with Indian polo.

And for the wider polo fraternity, the tight 7-6 finish on a crisp November afternoon in Delhi served as a reminder of what makes the sport both timeless and thrilling.

(The author attended The President’s Polo Cup, held at the President’s Bodyguard Parade Ground at the Ridge Forest in New Delhi on November 29, 2025)

The President’s Bodyguards and their majestic horses share a bond that is extraordinary, and is built on trust, discipline and understanding. Every flawless parade and every synchronized movement reflects several hours of training, skill and unwavering dedication. pic.twitter.com/zd1gkVH5U0

— President of India (@rashtrapatibhvn) November 30, 2025

At Firstpost, we extensively covered Indian polo through the 2024-25 season, first focusing on the  origins of the sport, and then diving deep into the  role of the Indian Armed Forces in reviving polo as well as the  challenges the sport faces in the subcontinent.

Now we have begun with a new series of features focusing on the 2025-26 Indian polo season.