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SMUG
An Interview with
Hamid Ali Khan Our Man in Windsor!
With this issue CONNECT raises the curtain on yet
another SMUG (Smart, Mobile, Upward, Global)
Pakistani. Hamid has been quietly but very effectively
engaging within the rarified strata of English high
society and gaining their grudging acceptance and
admiration on the polo field. What follows is an
account of Hamid's incredible journey from local
Karachi boy to international celebrity.
Teaming up with the local jet-set!
Hamid Ali Khan is exceptionally good on horseback.
He has an international polo rating of 4 goals on
handicap, which means that he is entirely capable
of mixing it in with the very best players in the world,
something he does on a regular basis.
The prestigious Guards Polo Club at Windsor
Great Park in England has elected Hamid onto its
very exclusive membership. His family hails from
Nuakilli, and is related to the Squash Khans of
Pakistan. The Nuakilli Khans are go-getters, and
famed the world over for their enterprise and true
grit. Hamid Ali Khan is no exception to this stereotype,
and has gone one better by choosing the polo mallet
in place of the squash racket as his preferred weapon
of sport.
From the Karachi Polo Club to the Guards Polo
Club has been a somewhat heady transition that
Hamid, level-headed and sober, has taken in his
stride. He has focused on the core activity,
irrespective of where it takes place. This has helped
him in surviving the daunting experiences of the
high life that constitute an occupational hazard in
the game of polo. For this single-minded dedication
to the pursuit of excellence, the core activity has
rewarded Hamid with the sort of skills that have
made him a respected member of the polo fraternity
in England.
Hamid's is yet another fairytale-like story, a
spectacular career progression that has left his old
friends and family breathless. One of five sons born
to successful horse trainer, the late Abdul Mannan
Khan, in Karachi, Hamid understandably grew up
in the saddle. For Hamid his father wanted more
than a unidirectional flat-out gallop on the racetracks
of the world. Hamid was special. He was a thinking
young boy drawn naturally to strategy making. Polo
was more suited to Hamid's temperament, and Abdul
Mannan Khan set out for the
Karachi Polo Club (KPC) with
his ten year old son. In the
President of the KPC, Fakir
Syed Aitzazudin (Jaja
Mian), Hamid found the
encouragement and material
support vital for the grooming
of a player.
Hamid took to polo pretty
much like a duck takes to
water, and within a few short
years he was the most
sought-after player at the
KPC. Fortune was about
ready to smile on Hamid in
a really big way. Sheikh
Mohammad Al Hamrani, a
Saudi millionaire and keen
polo enthusiast, was
contemplating a big
investment in the game. He
was looking for a young,
bright, talented professional
to train his horses for his Team Palmera. The
Sheikh's search brought him to the KPC. "Hamid
was my obvious choice," says Jaja Mian. "I had
raised him like my own son, and could vouch for
him without any hesitation." Sheikh Mohammad Al
Hamrani took Hamid entirely under his wings.
Hamid's years with the KPC had given him the
training and confidence to cope with all types in all
strata of society. It came in very handy coping with
the heady lifestyle of the global jet-set.
Team Palmera was formed in 1988, with stables
and training facilities a short ride from Windsor Great
Park, the site of the Guards Polo Club (GPC). For
the last 16 years Hamid has divided his time between
Jeddah (four months), Windsor (seven months), and
Karachi (one month).
The Guards Polo Club was founded on January 25,
1955 with Prince Phillip, the Duke of Edinburgh, as
president. Originally called the Household Brigade
Polo Club, the name was changed to its present
form in 1969. Since its inception the GPC has grown
considerably. There are currently 1000 non-playing
members, and 140 playing members, amongst whom
are some of the highest rated polo players in the
world. Within the Great Park at Windsor, the GPC
is set in the outstanding natural surroundings of
Smith's Lawn, named after a local gamekeeper in
the 17th century. There are 10 grounds in all
extending over 120 acres.
The
GPC
playing
season
starts in
April and
finishes in mid-
September. The premier
official tournaments are the Queen's Cup
(high goal), Royal Windsor (medium goal), and
the Archie David (low goal), all of which take place
in June. In July each year the GPC is host to the
Hurlingham Polo Association's International Day.
This is the great show-piece polo occasion of the
year at which attendance is regularly in excess of
20,000 people.
Women have taken to polo in a big way, though they
are still regarded with more than just a touch of
cynicism at the GPC. Cameron Walter Masters, a
regular at the GPC and former captain of the Oxford
University Polo Club, has this to say on the subject:
"There are some gaspingly good looking female
players, and there are some with curious height to
weight ratios. Then there are those who are just
there for appearance sake. They prefer to wander
around the grounds and surrounds of clubs in pristine
polo gear, rather than actually play. There seems to
be an inverse correlation between polo achievement
and appearance. It would take a spectacular leap
of the imagination to foresee a female polo player
in the England team. Perhaps there is a hormonally
supercharged member of the fairer sex out there
who will surprise everybody. It is, however, as likely
as a woman being chosen for the England cricket
team. But then again, perhaps not, given the English
cricket team's recent performances." Such are the
A swashbuckling Hamid Ali Khan - Our man in Windsor
people, circumstances and environment that our
Hamid Ali Khan is up against in the line of duty and
the pursuit of excellence.
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