The Man with a Pony & a Mallet Decoding Naveen Jindal's love for Polo

By Aashika Jain

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Jindal Steel

Mounting on a horseback to play a team sport isn't everyone's cup of tea. Naveen Jindal's first rendezvous with the sport back in 1987 was such a delight that he decided to buy horses and form his own team.

Polo remains the rich man's game, and the Indian industrialist and former Member of Parliament, Lok Sabha is acing it. Having played Polo for over 30 years, he has developed a deep love for the sport. Entrepreneur India caught up with Jindal in New Delhi where Jindal's team Jindal Panther lifted the Maharaja Jiwaji Rao Scindia Gold Cup 2019.

How long have you been playing polo?

My father introduced me to horses when I was a child but I started playing polo only when I was 18.

What makes you love polo?

I love horses, horse riding and hitting the ball while galloping. It's a team sport and shows team spirit.

Your defining moment in polo?

There are multiple defining moments in a sport like polo. It is losing but not giving up till the end and then winning the battle that makes polo so interesting. Just like in the Maharaja Jiwaji Rao Scindia Gold Cup 2019 where we were trailing 1-4 in the match and ended up winning the match in the end. In polo, you don't give up till the end.

(This article appears in the March 2019 issue of Entrepreneur Magazine. To subscribe, click here. You can buy our tablet version from Magzter.com. To visit our Archives, click here.)

Aashika Jain

Entrepreneur Staff

Former Associate Editor, Entrepreneur India

Journalist in the making since 2006! My fastest fingers have worked for India's business news channel CNBC-TV18, global news wire Thomson Reuters, the digital arm of India’s biggest newspaper The Economic Times and Entrepreneur India as the Digital Head. 
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