Mumbai, Sep 19 (IANS) Mumbai based La Pegasus Polo on Thursday announced their team for the inaugural edition of the X-treme Polo League (XPL), the first global franchise based professional League.
La Pegasus Polo International will be led by Argentine player Mariano Aguerre, a previously 10-goal handicap player – the highest ranking in Polo, who has won everything there to win in the game.
Mariano currently plays off an 8-goal handicap in both the United States and in his native Argentina. His impressive CV includes nine Argentina Open titles including the Argentine Triple Crown, two of the most hallowed achievements in Polo.
He also has a collection of major championships, highlighted by the US Open titles in 2005 with White Birch and in 2014 with Alegria.
Mariano has also won nine USPA Gold Cup titles. His acrobatic style also helped White Birch win the 1988 World Cup, and Mariano was named Most Valuable Player as a 4-goaler.
Accompanying Mariano will be the likes of Lerin Zubiaurre who plays off 8 goals. At the age of 10, he went onto win his first tournament Copa Potrillos in 2002. He has also won the Triple Crown Sotogrande in 2008, Copa Camara de Diputados in 2012, the Copa Republica Argentina 2011/2014 and the Argentina polo Tour Ellerstina in 2010/2011/2016/2018.
Martin Aguerre JR. will be another rising star to look out for. He plays off 7-goals and has won the Ellerstina Silver cup in 2007, and has also represented White Birch; together with his Uncle Mariano Aguerre with whom he will be teaming up again.
6-goaler Pablo Llorente will be completing the quadrat. Marcos ‘Cacu’ Araya who has a 7-goal handicap is part of the team as a substitute. Araya in his career has won tournaments like Copa Caimara de Diputados, Copa Republica, Copa Santa Paula and Copa Manuel Belgrano.
La Pegasus with the current composition will be a 29 goal team.
The XPL will consist of players wherein the sum of all the players’ handicap within a team should be between 28-34 handicaps. Each team is allowed a maximum of two players with a handicap of 10.
To put it in perspective, the highest handicap tournament played in India is the Indian Open which is a 16-goal tournament.
Also, the lowest handicapped player in the La Pegasus team is equal to India’s highest handicapped player and recent Arjuna Awardee Simran Singh Shergill who also plays off 6-goals.
XPL is scheduled to begin from September 25 and The Finals slated for October 5 to be held at the PILAR Polo grounds – Buenos Aires in Argentina.
–IANS
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