For Four Decades She Never Missed A Match: The Story Behind India’s Jaipur Trophy

For nearly 40 years, Gayatri Devi rarely missed a match tied to a trophy her husband had created — and on July 18, that same fixture, the Jaipur Trophy, returned to London’s Guards Polo Club for Indian Polo Day.

The trophy traces back to 1968, when Man Singh II, one of the standout polo players of the 20th century, presented it to the Guards Polo Club in Windsor Great Park. He died in 1970, just two years later.

Gayatri Devi then carried the tradition forward, attending matches connected to the trophy for close to four decades. It later passed to Brigadier Bhawani Singh, and today the custodian is Padmanabh Singh.

The trophy went unplayed for 11 years after its last outing in 2011, before Padmanabh Singh revived it in 2025, restoring a fixture with deep roots in his family’s history.

This year’s match saw the Jaipur Polo Team of Padmanabh Singh, Will Emerson, Simran Singh Shergill and Naveen Jindal face a Guards Polo Club side of Sardar Jaisal Singh, Abhimanyu Pathak, Kuldeep Singh Rathore and Juan Gris Zavaleta, starting at 7.30pm IST and streamed live on Guards TV.

Earlier the same day, the final of the Indian Polo Challenge Shield was also played at the club, with Padmanabh Singh presenting the trophy to the winning team in a day that doubled as a marker of the historic India-Britain sporting connection through polo.

Wikimedia Commons/by Andreas Polo