“Let others play at other things. The king of games is still the game of kings.”The first recorded game of polo as described by the Persian poet Firdawsi took place 2,500 years ago, between the Turkomans and the Persians. Alexander the Great is said to have sent King Darius III a polo mallet and ball in 335 b.c. to try and settle their differences on a polo field rather than by war. The game is thought to have spread from Persia to Egypt and eastwards to China and India by the Moghuls. Polo was played in China during the Tang Dynasty and in Japan, where it was known as "dakyu".

Polo was discovered by the British in the 1850's in Manipur, India, where it had been played through the centuries. The Tibetans and Indians called the game “pulu”, thought to refer to the wood the ball was made of. The first known polo club was formed at Silchar, near Manipur in 1859. The British introduced the game to England in 1872 with the first polo club founded in Monmouthshire in 1872.

The game was introduced to Malaya by the British. The first polo club to be formed was the Singapore Polo Club in 1886. The Selangor Polo Club was started at Port Swettenham (now Port Klang) in 1902. Butterworth and Penang followed soon after.

Iskandar Polo Club was founded in 1923 by Sultan Iskandar of Perak. Royal Pahang Polo Club was formed soon after. Sultan Iskandar of Perak gave some polo ponies to Sultan Abu Bakar on the occasion of his marriage to Sultan Iskandar’s daughter. This started the Pahang royal family’s love affair with polo, and in 1926 Sultan Abu Bakar founded the Royal Pahang Polo Club.

The Malayan Polo Association (now called the Royal Malaysian Polo Association)was formed in 1922 by the Selangor Polo Club, the Penang Polo Club and the Singapore Polo Club. Royal Pahang Polo Club, Royal Johor Polo Club and the Iskandar Polo Club of Perak would subsequently join the association along with polo clubs from Batavia (Jakarta) and Bangkok.

The Malayan Polo Association was affiliated to the Hurlingham Polo Association which was the international governing body of the sport at the time. Today the Royal Malaysian Polo Aassociation is still affiliated to the Hurlingham Polo Association. The Royal Malaysian Polo Association is recognised by the Olympic Council of Malaysia, the National Sports Council and the Malaysian Equine Council. next page