INTERVIEW


HH Maharaja Sawai Padmanabh Singh of Jaipur, Vivek Rawal, Daniel Otamendi and Alejandro Novillo Astrada


A highlight of Vivek's playing career has been the Snow Polo World Cup in St Moritz


“THE ONE THING THAT GUARDS POLO CLUB HAS ALWAYS DONE WELL IS TO INVEST BACK INTO THE CLUB – LOOK AT THE CLUBHOUSE, THE RECENT PROJECT AT FLEMISH FARM AND OUR FORTHCOMING GROUNDS PLANS”


work is in the business of education - we operate in 18 countries around the world – running vocational education is our core business. My father set up the business and I joined after a few years’ working in the city after reading law at Cambridge. My father, who lives in Kenya, is still involved in the business, although he is pretty much retired from the day-to-day, but his knowledge and wisdom is invaluable to my brother and me.” Vivek’s passion for polo even dictates


his business meetings. In the same week that he did this interview, he had flown out of the UK on the Wednesday evening, reached Mumbai early on Thursday morning for full day of meetings and then got the midnight flight back to London and landed back into Heathrow at 7am in time for a Guards Polo Club Board Meeting at 10am! This same passion has also resulted in Vivek helping to set up the Power of


Polo charity. “We all spend a fortune on our sport and at times it’s difficult to see a way of giving something back through


the sport, but I knew there had to be a way of sharing and caring through our sport. I


am mentoring Katy Haywood who runs the charity day-to-day, but without her passion the charity would not grow. We have already started to have a big impact on young people’s lives and encourage them to follow the charity’s tag line, ‘change your line’. “Whenever we bring young people up to


Guards Polo Club they can see the value of the Club that we all take for granted. On driving through the gates, they feel they are entering some kind of magic kingdom. It’s what we do every time we come up to the Club, but sometimes we forget how lucky we are.” So, what does the next decade hold in store


for Vivek and his family? “To play as a family team is my dream. Hopefully, I will still be playing in one piece with the third generation – which would be the best thing ever. “Although Shenila may not play, she is


fully involved in the social side of the Club, such as the Ladies’ Charity Day committee. Meanwhile, both our boys are loving their polo and I cannot wait for them to be playing members here. Our eldest son is about to start at Harrow where I hope he will be able to push the polo side – it has a fantastic polo set up, including playing here on Varsity Day.” It is clear that Vivek’s passion for polo


remains undimmed and his anything-is- possible philosophy remains undented. Such a track record for achieving success as an outsider in such a niche sport can only be good news for his boys, his Club and the sport in general.


30 GUARDS POLO CLUB OFFICIAL YEARBOOK 2018


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