And its a good thing.
I was going to attend by the airline lost my trunk.
There is a video of this. After the elephant demolished the van a bunch of Darwin Award wannabes were throwing stones at it.
Do you have a link?
Thanks!
Damn! You beat me to it! I was going to start my first thread.
I am actually a veteran elephant-polo player, but I could not attend the Sri Lankan tournament either. I’ve only played here in Thailand, in the King’s Cup Tournament:
http://www.tatnews.org/events/events/2006/sep/2897.asp
In the 25 years or so since the invention of elephant polo in Nepal, this is the first time something like this has ever happened. I can personally testify that the elephants generally seem to have a great time running around on the field, and I’ve never felt threatened. There have been a couple of times when an elephant has become miffed at another elephant and started trumpeting a little, but nothing serious. A match is played in two 7-minute “chukkas” (a Hindu word, I believe), or halves. We change elephants after each chukka, so an elephant is only on the field for 7 minutes at a time. The elephants leaving the field are taken off and treated to a nice bath and lots to eat. They really seem to have fun.
The inventor of elephant polo is a man by the name of Jim Edwards, an Englishman who owns and operates the Tree Tops Lodge in Nepal. A real last-of-the-British-Raj-type guy. Fascinating to talk to. And to hear of some of the guests who have stayed in his lodge, like Jimmy Carter, Henry Kissinger and Queen Elizabeth. (No, no embarrassing stories about any of them. He is very discreet.) An old horse-polo player, he just happened to own 25 elephants or so back in the early 1980s when someone suggested they try playing polo on them. I can only assume this was during a heavy drinking session, but the sport was born. He was probably there at the Sri Lankan tournament when the incident happened; he’s attened every year here in Thailand.
The King’s Cup Elephant Polo Tournament has been an annual event in Thailand since I believe 2001. My wife has a lot of good shots of me in action. I look forward to suiting up again this year.
Oh, and the American who was thrown from the elephant in Sri Lanka. I’ve been told that it was a member of the Capitol Pachyderms team out of Washington, DC. No, I’m NOT kidding. There’s an elephant-polo team in Washington. (Or was; maybe they’ll disband now.) They played for the first time in Thailand at last year’s tourney. No, they are not a group of Republicans, as I remember them being very quick to tell you.
There is an Elephant Sanctuary here in Arkansas I’ve visited. Willie is twelve feet high. Every time I find it hard to believe something that big is alive. But I digress.
I take it that totaling the other team’s transportation is not a legitimate tactic.
But if I could train one of the smaller elephants to do that to cars that play music too loudly; It would play hell with my gas mileage to trailer him around, but the satisfaction! 
Actually, I can find nothing in the rules explicitly forbidding it. I’ll have to speak to the team-mates about maybe incorporating it as a diversionary strategy.
I’m thinking we have a contender for the Doper With the Most Unusual Hobby Award. What is a typical score for a game? And if ya don’t mind, could ya summarize the rules? Is it something like mounted soccer?
Well, there’s handicapping involved. We’ve won 1-0 before, but we’re just amateurs having fun. There are some really skilled horse-polo players who participate, I mean the type of who travel all over the world to play in horse-polo tournaments, and they do pretty darned well. I’ve seen score of, oh, 8-5, and that’s where the “5” really only scored one goal but got 5 because of the handicap. Or didn’t even score a goal because 5 WAS the handicap. I know I’ve seen 8 the winning score; can’t think if 've seen it higher than that. 8 is pretty good for 15 minutes of play; the field is BIG.
The rules and everything are at the link above, but here they are here (and I like the part about after each match, feeding snacks to the elephants and beer to the elephant handlers and not vice versa). A “mahout” is an elephant handler:
RULES
The rules are similar to those of horse polo but some key points to note are that the elephants have a player and a mahout, ladies are allowed to use both hands and elongated sticks of around two metres in length are used.
Additionally there are some elephant specific rules:
Any team having more than 3 elephants in one half of the pitch is judged to have committed a foul.
No more than 2 elephants may be in the D at one time – one from the attacking team and one from the defending team.
There are no restrictions as to the height, weight or sex of the elephants.
No elephants may lie down in front of the goal mouth. To do so will constitute a foul. A free hit is awarded to the opposing side from the semi-circle in front of the goal.
An elephant may not pick up the ball in its trunk during play. To do so constitutes a foul and a free hit is awarded to the opposing team from the spot where the ball was picked up. The defending players must be 15 metres from the spot.
Teams are made up from the pool of elephants and balanced out as fairly as possible bearing in mind size and speed of the elephant. Once the pool of elephants has been selected, each elephant is categorized and marked as A,B,C,D, E, F.
Sugar cane or rice balls packed with vitamins (molasses and rock salt) shall be given to the elephants at the end of each match and a cold beer, or soft drink, to the elephant drivers and not vice versa.
THE HEALTH AND WELFARE OF THE ELEPHANTS USED IN T.E.P.A. TOURNAMENTS IS OF PRIME CONCERN, ABUSE OF THE ELEPHANT IS CONSIDERED TO BE THE MOST SERIOUS OFFENCE.
HANDICAPPING
Handicaps are assigned by the T.E.P.A. Handicapping Committee and handicapped players may come under one of two categories
Professional horse polo players. The handicap awarded to any registered professional horse polo player shall total half of their horse polo handicap.
Professional and seasoned elephant polo players. A half goal handicap will be assigned to any player who has played in three or more World Series (WEPA, TEPA or CEPA) elephant polo championships anywhere in the world and does not have a horse polo handicap.
Players handicaps are decided before the tournament commences. Player handicaps may not be changed during the tournament.
Should a team’s total handicap when summed result in a half goal handicap, the handicap is rounded down.
Ah, let me add that TYPICAL, I would say the winning score is in the 3-5-point range.
And let me also add that playing elephant polo really, really helps one appreciate these majestic beasts. These are smart animals, the minivan head-butt-er aside. I absolutely adore them and have actually penciled in for 2008 (can’t do it this year) a 10-day elephant-handling course offered at the elephant institute in Lampang province, in the North. About $750.
Sorry, one more. I left this part off:
ELEPHANT POLO HISTORY AND RULES OF THE GAME
The World Elephant Polo Association established the governing rules for Elephant Polo in 1982, the association has its headquarters at the Tiger Tops Jungle Lodge in the Royal Chitwan Park in Nepal which is where the World Elephant Polo Tournament is played every year on a grass airfield in Megauly.
In 2001 two new competitions were launched - the King’s Cup Elephant Polo Tournament in Hua Hin Thailand, organised by the Anantara Resort and Spa and held each September and the Ceylon Elephant Polo Association Championships, held on Weligama beach in front of Taprobane Island in southern Sri Lanka each February.
ORGANISATION OF THE GAME
In Thailand the game is played with three players on each team on a marked pitch of 100 metres by 60 metres using a standard size polo ball.
The game consists of two 7-minute chukkas of playing time, with an interval of 15 minutes. The whistle blown by the referee stops and starts the play.
The pitch is marked with a centre line; a circle with a radius of 10 metres in the centre of the field, and a semi-circle, in front of the goals, with a radius of 20 metres, measured from the centre of the goal line at either end of the pitch which is referred to as the D.
Elephants and ends are changed at half time.
The scoring system awards two points to a winning team and one point apiece to teams which draw.
And once again, all sorts of info here (have not seen a Web page for this year yet):
Thanks for the info. I’m thinking maybe the elephant in the OP is protesting that beer/sugar cane thing. 
750$ for 10-day elephant handling course?!?! I need to save 750$! (and the cost of tickets to Thailand!) How’s that for a skill to put on your resumé!
Here’s a link to the National Elephant Institute, which ofers the elephant-training course:
And specifically the elephant-training courses:
There’s a range of courses, including just 2 or 3 days if you’re pressed for time. I would love to do the 30-day Advanced training, but I can’t spare that much time. When I sign up, it’ll be the 10-day course, which I’ve been told is 30,000 baht. I said that was $750, but at the current exchange rate of 35 1/2 baht to the US dollar, that’s actually $845 (the baht has been strengthening these past few months). I believe that includes room and board, though.
The King’s Cup Elephant Polo Tournament was held for years in Hua Hin, a little ways down the peninsula on the Gulf of Thailand coast, but then last year they moved it up to the North, in Chiang Saen, a town on the Mekong River and across from Laos. A very beautiful setting. But at that time of year, September, it’s very rainy, especially so in the North, and that caused problems. The pitch was so wet that play had to be stopped quite a few times when an elephant stepped on the ball and squished it into the ground. It was so rainy one day and the ground so soaked that an elephant actually slipped and fell. We weren’t playing that day and were wandering around elsewhere, so we didn’t get to see that. The rain caused so many problems that we were told they were considering moving it up to April, our driest time of year (and hottest). Haven’t heard anything else about that, though, and it’s February already.
Here’s a link to a good account written by an older Canadian woman who did the 10-day elephant-handling course: