A portly business consultant takes an inch-perfect pass from a balding banker, slots the ball home with clinical precision and punches the air with both arms, David Beckham style.

This is "Champagne polo", the commentator yells as the steed now lumbering behind the goal lets go of a large pile of dung.

We are approaching the climax of the World Elephant Polo Championships, with players from across the globe gathering in a remote airfield in southern Nepal for a week of one of the most unusual sports around.

"Some players are looking very tired out there," says Peter Prentice, a Hong Kong-based veteran of the tournament who chairs the World Elephant Polo Association (WEPA) and doubles up as an urbane commentator.

"I recommend a few repetitions of light weights to warm down and certainly a half a Carlsberg is about the right weight to relax those weary muscles.

"A Sauvignon Blanc and then a Chablis over ice or two should also do the trick."

Meanwhile a former Miss Nepal is told she is holding her stick the wrong way around.

Thus the tone is set for the exclusive business of elephant polo in Nepal's Chitwan National Park, home to Bengal tigers, rhinos and, for one week a year, playboys and aristocrats.

The annual event, hosted by the Tiger Tops jungle resort, has attracted models, celebrities and other glitterati over the years, including former Beatle Ringo Starr and comedians Billy Connolly and Max Boyce.

But at the business end of the tournament the participants take their sport seriously.

"Players don't take it lightly if a umpiring decision doesn't go their way," says Dubai-based former Gurkha and logistics consultant Nigel Lea, 33.

"But the joy of elephant polo is that because you are all together as a community that only sees each other once a year, 30 seconds after walking off the pitch we calm down, shake hands and have a beer together."

It is easy to understand why the players do not like to go home empty-handed -- the package per person is around the $3,500 mark for a week and the entry fee for each of the eight teams works out at an eye-watering $10,000.

"I don't think it's a sport for posh people," Lea says, however. "Some people here have a lot of money, some people can hardly rub two coppers together."

Elephant polo was dreamt up 30 years ago over drinks at a Swiss ski resort and is based on the rules of its horseback equivalent, with a smaller pitch to cater for the less energetic means of transport.

Two teams of four players in pith helmets sit astride elephants controlled by mahouts, or trainers, who drive them on using oral commands and pressure from their feet.

Communication is the main problem as the mahouts speak only Nepali, as do their mounts, who are thought to be able to understand about 30 words.

Players carry sticks up to eight feet (2.5 metres) long to hit the ball towards the opposing goal, with each game comprising two 10-minute chukkas.

The list of enthusiasts is illustrious. Cheering from the sidelines this year is Colonel Raj Kalaan, who played with the Indian Polo team for 20 years and commanded India's 61st Cavalry.

Local people also turn up in their thousands every year to cheer on a team put together by the park warden and his staff, who work with elephants every day and are often among the top performers.

This year's title was successfully defended by a team led by spritely 72-year-old Scotsman James Manclark, a former Olympic tobogganist who was one of the sport's founders.

Elephant polo is not without its detractors, chief among them animal welfare groups who have campaigned against the sport in India.

But elephant welfare is a high priority at Tiger Tops and their treatment is reminiscent of the pampering that thoroughbred racehorses enjoy.

The mahouts clean and care for their mounts, treating them at the end of each match to molasses sandwiches to keep their strength up.

Conservation is also a key issue for Tiger Tops and the WEPA, which has contributed thousands of dollars towards animal and conservation schemes benefiting Nepal over the years.

"If you see how they are here, you can see they are happy and in their natural habitat," said Stine Edwards, captain of the all-women Tiger Tops Tigresses team, which ended the tournament in third place.

"An elephant will never do anything it doesn't want to do," says Stine, who adds it is obvious to players that their mounts know what they are up to on the field.

"They are so bright. One year we had an elephant who would be furious when you missed a shot," she says. "He seemed to be saying 'Can't you just hit the ball?"