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Last Updated : Nov 02 1999 | 12:00 AM IST

In the dead of a humid afternoon, eight men pedal towards the empty football field at New Delhi's Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium for a practice session. Here they cross and re-cross the length of grass in wide circles on fast-moving bicycles, chasing a fluorescent tennis ball, their left hand firmly on the handle-bar. With their right, they dribble the ball with an ungainly cane stick, whipping it skywards when the space between two sets of wheels is too narow for a straight pass. "Remember the rules," shouts coach P B Krishna.

In an age when heavyweight games like cricket hog prime time, it isn't surprising that a sport like cycle polo isn't the hottest ticket to show off your sportmanship. Sponsors rarely stick their nose out with their money, and sports authorities hardly care which way the game is going. But this enthusiastic eight-some _ M L Naik, T Kumar, Vikash Chandra, Shiva Kumar, Mirza Asad Baig, Pravin Kumar, S Gopakumar and Prabhu Dayal _ represent the best cycle polo players the country has produced. And they are representing India at the International Cycle Polo Championship in Vancouver, from July 31 to August 2.

But there is no government support, no sponsor and no good-luck send-off pat on their back. In reality, the Sports Authority of India didn't even heed their request for uniforms from the playing kit fund entitled to sports that fall under their 'C' category. "I sell cycles in India, what will I do with publicity in a foreign country anyway," responded one cycle manufacturer.

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"But we couldn't sit around for the government to pay us, and lose an opportunity to play," says Raghuvendra Singh Dundlod, secretary of te Cycle Polo Federation of India. So the players decided to finance their own expenses.

Cycle polo, said to be the unglamourous cousin of the Sport of Kings _- equestrian polo _ is a poor man's game in every sense. The players have no helmets, gloves or geared bikes... With elementary cycles and plenty of enthusiasm, they say they are ready to face their opponents. "We are confident of the results," assures coach Krishna.

Nonetheless, help from sports enthusiasts has shown an encouraging trend. A little bit has come from the 22 cycle polo sports federations across the country. A Thiruvananthapuram-based sports start-up, Captone, decided to dress the boys in tracksuits with its compliments. And a polo stick manufacturer from Jaipur with a reputation for making t

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First Published: Nov 02 1999 | 12:00 AM IST

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