Four Lonely Souls Staring at the Sky
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Four lonely souls staring at the sky Cover Illustration by Alf Ink Translated by Carolina Beresford For my father. You have a right to perform your prescribed duties, but you are not entitled to the fruits of your actions. Never consider yourself to be the cause of the results of your activities, nor be attached to inaction. BHAGAVAD-GITA • CONTENTS • PROLOGUE CHAPTER 1 CHAPTER 2 CHAPTER 3 CHAPTER 4 CHAPTER 5 CHAPTER 6 CHAPTER 7 CHAPTER 8 CHAPTER 9 CHAPTER 10 CHAPTER 11 CHAPTER 12 CHAPTER 13 CHAPTER 14 CHAPTER 15 CHAPTER 16 CHAPTER 17 CHAPTER 18 CHAPTER 19 CHAPTER 20 CHAPTER 21 CHAPTER 22 CHAPTER 23 CHAPTER 24 CHAPTER 25 CHAPTER 26 CHAPTER 27 CHAPTER 28 CHAPTER 29 CHAPTER 30 CHAPTER 31 CHAPTER 32 EPILOGUE ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS • PROLOGUE • It was a warm June night in 2018, a couple of days after the 40-goal exhibition at Cowdray Park Polo Club, in England, and I couldn’t sleep a wink. The funny feeling that had crept up on me on the train back to London after the match had lingered. Everything had gone to plan, and we had achieved something monumental: eight 10-goal players had come together to play at Lawns. It was a fantastic match, and the 10-goalers were able to show the virtues and dynamism implicit in the style of polo we were promoting. But I was a little uneasy. I felt strange, detached—almost depressed. It was only after that night of insomnia that I realised why: the 40-goal exhibition at Cowdray clearly marked the end of a cycle for the All Pro Polo League. The functional stage—revolving around practices, smaller tournaments, exhibitions around the world to showcase the rules—had come to an end, and that was weighing me down, even though I knew that this didn’t imply the end of the project. On the contrary, from here on out we would have to work harder to see if we could transform what we had built into something economically viable. Almost four years had passed since that first meeting at Pilarchico, in Argentina, when we gathered 25 kids below the age of 23 to share our ideas with them. Four amazing years, where I received unconditional support and trust from so many people, where I made new friends, discovered amazing places, and got to travel around the world with my family. As I had this sort of epiphany, I was filled with a sudden desire to write. It had been almost ten years since I published the essay that served as a touchstone for everything that followed. While I always knew that part two would come, I had never felt compelled to write it. Before we begin, I would like to quote the great Uruguayan writer, Juan Carlos Onetti: It is said that there are several ways of lying; but the most repugnant of all is telling the truth, the whole truth, hiding the soul of the facts. Because facts are always empty, they are recipients that take the shape of the sentiment that fills them. In my previous essay, I made the decision to not share what I thought about particular people, or to not bring up certain things that happen in polo, things that no-one talks about, because I didn’t think that it was necessary. It was not my intention to make enemies. But that tactic did not bring about any results. For the want of being politically correct, I left a lot of things unsaid. Many people congratulated me, but everything continued just as it was. So now I am going to try a different strategy. I am not going to hold anything back. It is likely that many will not share my opinions, and what I write may offend a few sensibilities, but I would like nothing more than to hear rational arguments that prove I am mistaken. I am going to have to concentrate and remember with clarity all that transpired over these last four years, because it is in the smallest details that we may find, as Onetti says, the ‘soul of the facts.’ This is the only way I will be able to fully explain my reasons, and those of my team’s, for building the All Pro Polo League. This project has a soul—if I am not able to transmit that, then this text will be utterly useless. I hope to do our story justice, and by sharing it, help the sport we love so much, the one we carry in our blood, and deep within our hearts. FOUR LONELY SOULS STARING AT THE SKY 1 In June 2009, I published an essay entitled Reflecting on Polo in Argentina. In it, I analysed the current state of polo in the country, and discussed what I saw to be a tremendous decline in the quality of the game. To better understand this text, I suggest the reader take the time to look over the first essay, found here. The panorama at that point looked more or less like this: polo was getting worse and worse, the matches lasted longer, chukkas were dominated by fouls, and games were decidedly more boring than ever before. Palermo came to an end, with everyone saying, “What a mess, this polo is sh—,” December came around, Christmas, New Year’s, some went off to Punta del Este, others to Villa La Angostura, a few to ski in Aspen, February came along, everyone migrated to their Estancias—and nobody did anything to improve the sport. March arrived and the autumn season began. Year after year, season after season. To write the first essay, I had met with as many people as possible: players, directors, umpires, former players, vets. The conclusion had been that polo urgently needed to update its rules, especially since players had found a way to slow things down and take the rhythm out of the game. Rhythm, in my opinion, is not only what makes polo fun to watch, but it is what differentiates high goal from low goal. At the end of the essay, I listed 18 new ideas—some my own, others gathered from the interviews I had conducted—for various associations and committees to take into consideration, and test the ones they thought might be helpful. But nothing happened, mainly because the majority of the polo world believed that the rules did not need amending. They held that the umpiring criteria, the one that had been in use for 30 years, was perfectly valid. It was funny, because I kept hearing the phrase, “The rules are perfect!”, as if they had been written by some celestial being, or engraved on sacred stones. I would reply by pointing out that there are many rules not mentioned by these polo prophets, simply because they were not relevant to players at the time. I remember one night when, at an asado, after having had a fair share of wine, I was discussing this idea with a couple of friends. I was struggling to get my point across, so I conjured up an extreme example: “Can I ask you all a question?” I interrupted. “What would happen if during the first match of the Argentine Open, a player came onto the field with his mother-in-law riding behind him? And then another player rides out with his mother-in-law? And then every player starts doing the same thing. What would the umpires say?” My friends looked at me in disbelief. I continued, undeterred. “The umpires would tell the players to get their mother-in-laws off their horses • 8 • immediately! Now, does the rulebook say anything about not being able to play with your mother-in-law mounted behind you? Is it forbidden? No, it is not, just like many other things are not forbidden, because nobody is going to do it. But if one player does it, then another, and then all of them start doing it, it is likely that there will eventually be a rule prohibiting players from riding out, not only with their mother-in-laws, but with anyone at all!” I concluded, raising my voice slightly more than necessary. My friends exchanged worried looks and called it a night. * In September 2009, just before the start of the season, I got a call from Luisito Lalor, who had been elected President of the Argentine Association of Polo (AAP) in May. He told me that the Association had taken my essay into consideration. Everyone had liked it, he said, but they were not going to try a single rule I had proposed. They were just going to be stricter penalising turning when a player in defence had a rider nearby who had line from behind. That wasn’t a bad idea. In fact, it was one of the rules I mentioned in the essay. The sport improved marginally, but it ended up going to ruin because of the lack of criteria from the majority of the umpires, who would invariably end up favouring the player who showed up late to the play. But we will discuss this further on. Polo changed, but only slightly, and those of us asking for a new set of rules were certainly in the minority. Two or three years went by, without many changes. I was at ease, because I thought (erroneously) that I had done my bit. Another thing that I have learnt over the last ten years is that talking and doing are two very different concepts. There is a grey area where things can get confused, however.