CNN.com – Monday 20th June, 2005

If your business is looking to network, strike deals, as well as wine and dine potential clients, you may want to consider the game of polo.

It has been called the sport of kings, but its appeal extends far beyond watching royalty ride out on to the field or raising money for charity.

In between sips of champagne, mingling with socialites, as well as occasional shouts of bravo, there are some serious business deals being done.

“It has been my focus that it should not just be a charity event,” says Saroj Chakravarty, who is founder of the Chakravarty cup.

“It should also help business people come together, meet each other and develop a network and do business. As a businessman I know how important that network is.”

Once cherished and relished by royals, polo is now increasingly surviving on glamour-fed corporate sponsorship.

At the Chakravarty cup, Prince Charles, Prince William and the best polo players in the world – including Adolfo Cambiaso – battle it out on the field while Thai millionaires and other business people meet, greet and network.

The assembled corporate sponsors are an ideal fund-raising audience, one table at the event costs $20,000. “They can raise a £250,000 in an afternoon, which you could not on the streets in the same way,” says actor Richard E. Grant.

Over nine years, Chakravarty says his cup has raised over $1 million for charity, yet the value of those deals struck up while watching polo is immeasurable. Chakravarty also says more businesses are lining up to sponsor the event.

Last year the Chakravarty Cup polo match, was used to help develop links between business people from Britain’s West Country and the oil-rich emirate of Dubai.

Elsewhere polo is being used to publicize business events. Earlier this year, the Miami Beach Polo Cup in the U.S. helped promote the opening of Casa Casuarina, an upscale hotel.

CNN’s Paula Hancocks contributed to this report.