The Jindal estate in Noida is making sure that the Indian sport of polo remains on the gallop in the national capital region. With Delhi’s iconic Jaipur Polo Ground now defunct, international polo player and patron Naveen Jindal tells Firstpost that the sport’s future depends on how India treats it
Polo has returned to the Jindal Polo Estate in Noida after a short summer break as the sport also works out where it can be played in the National Capital Region.
The Indian polo season for 2026-27 officially began in August with a short stint in Bangalore.
The estate is now hosting four tournaments between October and early November, a packed run of competitive polo.
The timing matters.
Delhi’s Jaipur Polo Ground, long the capital’s most storied venue, was taken over by the Centre in June, leaving privately run grounds like Noida’s and army grounds at Delhi Cantonment as the region’s main options.
In an exclusive conversation with Firstpost, Naveen Jindal, an international polo player, patron of Jindal Polo, vice-president of the Indian Polo Association (IPA) and a three-time Member of Parliament, said the estate will now carry more of the load.
Naveen Jindal, patron of Jindal Polo, can be seen during a match at the Jindal Polo Estate in Noida on October 11, 2026. Firstpost via Jindal Polo
“We have always been playing here [in Noida] but now we will be playing more polo here since there are no other good facilities to play around…,” he said.
A four-week calendar
The series in Noida opened with the Jindal Panther Cup, in which Jindal Panther beat Sujan 12-6 in their first match. Vimal Arion Achievers then beat Jindal Panther 9-6 in the final on October 11. Jindal himself was among the scorers for the home side.
More from SportsThe Sunjay Kapur Memorial Cup also concluded on October 18 with the 1729 Team and Achievers being declared the joint winners.
Achievers player Chris Jake (left) and Jindal Panthers player Simran Singh Shergill can be seen on a gallop during a match at the Jindal Polo Estate in Noida on October 11, 2026. Firstpost via Jindal Polo
The Jindal Panther Shield follows. The series closes with the Jindal Estate Cup, with the final tournament scheduled to conclude by November 1.
Participating players are offered professional umpires, complimentary accommodation and horse stabling during the tournaments. Those facilities matter in a sport where the cost of moving and housing horses is a major barrier to entry.
The estate was also busy earlier this year. Its spring season ran through March and included the Jindal Polo Estate Cup, a 4-goal event, and the Carlos Gracida Memorial Cup, a 6-goal event honouring the late Argentine great.
Team X beat Jindal Panther 8-6 in the Sunjay Kapur Memorial Cup final. Jindal Panther’s stable of entries is recognised by the IPA. It was established in the late 1980s and has competed in the Baroda Cup, Jaipur Open, Sirmour Cup and Bhopal-Pataudi Cup, among others.
After Jaipur Polo Ground
The loss of the Delhi ground has been the conversation shaping much of the year in Indian polo. The Centre served an eviction notice on May 20, saying the 15.20-acre site in the Race Course area was needed “for a larger public purpose and benefit”.
Land and Development Office officials took physical possession on June 13, after courts declined to stay the order. The last match played there was the Northern India Polo Championship final on March 29, in which Jindal Panther beat Jaipur Achievers 9-8.
Naveen Jindal, patron of Jindal Polo, presents a memento to Rajesh Sahgal, chairman of the Delhi Polo Tournament Committee, after a match at the Jindal Polo Estate in Noida on October 11, 2026. Firstpost via Jindal Polo
The IPA had called the ground its principal and only operational polo venue in the country. The Delhi High Court had earlier voiced concern about the government’s plans for such green spaces in central Delhi.
The Centre has maintained that the land is needed for public purposes, and the move is part of a wider effort to reclaim land held by legacy institutions in Lutyens’ Delhi.
On August 10, the IPA withdrew its petition seeking an arbitrator and said it would press for alternative land in the capital for equestrian sport. A representation moved by Jindal argued that a minimum of 500 acres was indispensable, because polo cannot be played from a conventional sports ground or a small parcel of land.
Players and patrons of the victorious Achievers team as well as players from the Jindal Panthers team pose for a photograph after a match at the Jindal Polo Estate in Noida on October 11, 2026. Firstpost via Jindal Polo
Asked what responsibility he felt as IPA vice-president to keep polo alive in the capital region, Jindal pointed to that demand.
“We are going to do everything in our power, and we have also demanded from the government that in lieu of JPG, a very valuable piece of land, they must give us a very large piece of land, say about 500-1000 acres, so that we can make a proper national polo centre there,” he told Firstspost.
The government has not yet publicly committed to such an allotment. Jindal has said that polo has the government’s support through the IPA, which is government-recognised.
Access for young players
Access for young players is one area where Jindal was candid about work still to do. Noida, he said, already draws youngsters, but there is no formal club structure yet.
“There are lots of youngsters who come here but we do not yet have a club. We have people who have their own horses. A lot of them keep their horses around and they come and use these facilities and teams come here with their horses,” he said.
Players from the Jindal Panthers team can be seen chasing Achievers player Chris Jake during a match at the Jindal Polo Estate in Noida on October 11, 2026. Firstpost via Jindal Polo
“We have to see whether we can do something for youngsters who want to come here,” he added.
That acknowledgement matters because polo’s cost is its biggest obstacle. Horses, grooms, stabling and travel put the sport out of reach for most aspiring players unless there is an institutional pathway.
Money is flowing into the sport
Polo is attracting new money, and the Noida estate is part of a wider pattern. Gujarat hosted its largest-ever polo event in January, the Ahmedabad Polo Tournament at the Gujarat Polo Club in Shela.
It used a franchise-style format with six men’s teams, including Jindal Panthers and Mayfair Polo, plus two women’s teams. Firstpost put to Jindal that Mayfair has now announced a polo estate in Ahmedabad and that Jaipur has begun night polo matches.
Naveen Jindal, patron of Jindal Polo, can be seen during a match at the Jindal Polo Estate in Noida on October 11, 2026. Firstpost via Jindal Polo
Jindal was unequivocal about where this leads. “Of course. Polo is a very popular sport and whoever comes to watch polo, they seem to love it. So polo has a great future and then it depends on us, how we treat it,” he said.
“Because polo is India’s gift to the world, so we have to be responsible for it. We have to see and ensure that it prospers. There are a lot of people, there are a lot of youngsters who want to take up the sport,” he added.
The claim has solid historical footing. Modern polo took shape in India’s North-East, where British officers encountered it in the 1850s.
The world’s first polo club was founded in Silchar, Assam, in 1859, followed by the Calcutta Polo Club in 1862. The sport was last played at the Olympics in Berlin in 1936.
Night polo and the Delhi question
Perhaps the most practical idea in the conversation is night polo.
Jaipurโs night polo matches are already making history with the Rajasthan Polo Club and His Highness Sawai Padmanabh Singh of Jaipur at the helm.
Jaipur’s night matches are being marketed as a tourist attraction. Jindal said the format could work in Delhi or Mumbai, and pointed out that Noida got there first.
“In the daytime, it becomes difficult for a lot of people to come. So in the night time, of course, more people can come and attend. So we have had night polo in Noida at Jindal for the last five years. So it’s good that Jaipur has also started this. But definitely we need to have this in the centre of Delhi also,” he said.
The logic is simple. A working city’s audience is available in the evenings, not on weekday afternoons. Spectator numbers are also the lever that attracts sponsors, and sponsors fund tournaments.
Jindal has also spoken about polo’s Olympic prospects. After the Jindal Panther Cup final, he told reporters he hopes polo will return to the Games when India hosts them.
India has submitted a bid for the 2036 Olympics, with Ahmedabad as the proposed host city. Jindal has backed including polo in that bid.
The road ahead
For now, the Noida estate offers a working answer to a real gap: a venue, a calendar and facilities that make tournaments possible in the capital region.
It cannot replace a national centre of the scale Jindal and the IPA are seeking, and it has no academy or club structure for beginners yet. Whether the Centre allots the 500 acres or more that the IPA wants remains an open question.
Naveen Jindal, patron of Jindal Polo, can be seen gearing up for a match at the Jindal Polo Estate in Noida on October 11, 2026. Anmol Singla/Firstpost
What the season shows is that polo in north India has the players, the patrons and the audience interest to continue. The next few weeks of tournaments in Noida, closing with the Jindal Estate Cup, will be a test of how much appetite there is.
Firstpost has been extensively following the Indian sport of modern polo and has resumed its coverage for the 2026-27 Indian Polo Season which is currently running from September 2026 to April 2027.