Last week the Royal Selangor Polo Club played a tournament called the Battle Of The Sexes. It was a match of Men against Women. It was a low handicap game, so as a 1 goal player, I was not allowed to play, not that I would have wanted to, and I will explain why.
Last year, when the Battle Of The Sexes was first held, I took it as a bit of fun, donned a wig and commentated the games. I was appalled when the men played for real, actually beating the girls in a couple of games. Fortunately the girls were overall winners, much to the embarrassment of the men.
Why was I appalled? Because it was a full-blooded game. The men played as hard as they could. In my opinion, there is no need for that. Were the men trying to prove that they are better players than women? What happened to chivalry? Why was there a need at all?
“It is just a bit of fun,” was the mantra that is often repeated. I fell for it last year. There were other types of falls. More serious ones. This year, as it was last year, there were many falls and players came off with injuries. In one match a team had to play 3 against 4 as they did not have a substitute for an injured player. That’s not just a bit of fun. I have nothing against playing for real, but to me, this was a needless match, a match that goes against one of the core values of polo.
Many players do not understand my position on this, and that’s why I thought I should explain it. Here goes:
Polo is a sport that allows all sexes to play. There is no discrimination according to gender. Every player has a handicap, and is defined by that alone. It should matter not if the player is male or female. Just as no one should ever be handicapped according to their race or religion, neither should gender enter into the equation.
I am a huge supporter of Ladies Polo. I started the Malaysian Ladies Polo Championships and ran it from 2012 to 2016. It has evolved into the Pink Polo series that has been run every year since. It is a sector of polo that is fastest growing, and ladies handicaps have emerged to track their best players and to create a more efficient handicapping range suited to them.
Through the years, I have made it a point to select on the basis of ability, not on sex. I have played and won countless tournaments with lady players on my team. I first won an MPA tournament playing with Barbara Branson back in 1982. More recently, in the RMPA Leagues and Tournaments, I have played with Lorna Dodd, Jennifer Too, Haseena Sharis, Hannah Daniels, and in 2016 my all conquering Head Hunters team in the Merdeka League included Lim Siu Tin. I made it a point to include lady players in my teams.
In open polo, players are adjudged solely on their play. Rank, race, gender, age are not factors that should ever affect your open polo handicap. Just your ability. Many times, lady players get away with a slightly lower handicap than they are really worth, due to handicapper’s gender bias.
This year when Zack’s Tack was asked if we would sponsor the Battle Of The Sexes tournament, we declined. It is the only tournament at the Royal Selangor Polo Club that we are not sponsors of. I felt we cannot condone a tournament that was created to see which sex is better at polo. In essence, to accentuate the gender bias.
Polo is unique. It is a mixed gender contact sport. I cannot think of another contact sport that does not restrict gender participation in games. That is why when we have segregated games, I see the sport being devalued.
In this year’s Battle Of The Sexes, the boys gave themselves Argentine sounding names, like Gonzalo, Facundo, Polito, Juan Ma etc. It didn’t help – Las Chicas pwned the men in 3 of the 4 matches played. Handed them their asses on a platter. And why shouldn’t they. The girls played to their ability, played to their handicaps. On any given day, if you play to your handicaps or better, why shouldn’t you beat the opposition?
As ladies, were they underrated? Well, that is a question the handicapping committee has to ask themselves.
What do the boys have to ask themselves? How about WHY? Why is there a need to prove which sex is better at polo? As Sir Winston Churchill said, ‘A polo handicap is your passport to the world’. Do not devalue the strength of that passport.
