Navjot Singh Sidhu: Difference between revisions

Navjot Singh Sidhu (born October 20, 1963) is former Indian cricket batsman, who took up television commentary and, more recently, politics following his retirement from the game. He was born in Patiala in Punjab. Sidhu was elected to the Lok Sabha from Amritsar in 2004 on a Bharatiya Janata Party ticket; he has since resigned, following his conviction for culpable homicide.

Cricketing career

Navjot Singh Sidhu had a volatile international career from 1983 to 1999

He made an uneventful international debut against the West Indies at Ahmedabad in 1983 scoring just 19 runs in his debut Test match. He was given another chance in that series but failed again. He was selected for the 1987 cricket World Cup in India scoring 73 on his One-day International debut in a losing effort against Australia. He scored 50s in 4 of the 5 World Cup 1987 matches in which he batted, failing in the semifinal against England. His maiden ODI century came against Pakistan in Sharjah in 1989 while his 134 against England at Gwalior in 1993 was his highest ODI score and the innings which he called his best when he retired in 1999.

It was during the later part of his career that he was recognised as a mediocre Test batsman when he scored over 500 Test runs in a year thrice (1993, 1994 and 1997). His only Test double century came during India's 1997 tour of West Indies. In 1994, he scored 885 ODI runs.

He announced his retirement from all forms of cricket in December 1999. He played over 50 Test matches and over 100 ODIs scoring over 7,000 international runs. He has 27 centuries to his credit in a 18 year career.

Some of the nicknames he earned were "Sixer Sidhu", Sherry and "Jonty Singh" (with respect to his improved fielding in his late career, Jonty Rhodes being the best fielder at that time.) Toward the end of his career, when his form went belly-up he became known as "Puttu", a name that has carried on to his commentary career.

Commentator and TV Personality

Sidhu started his career as a commentator for NIMBUS when India toured Sri Lanka in 2001. He however later became a commentator with ESPN-Star. He had a brash & outspoken style with his all-too-(in)famous & meaningless Sidhuisms. However, he took his outspoken style a bit too far and was sacked by ESPN-Star around August 2003 - allegedly for using the F-Word on air. Subsequent to his sacking, he took his act to commentate for Ten Sports. He also regularly appears as a "cricket analyst" on various local Indian channels. Of late he also figured as a judge on a television program - "The Great Indian Laughter Challenge".

Cyrus Sahukar hosts a program on MTV "Piddhu the Great" where he is disguised as Piddhu, a lookalike of Sidhu. The one-liners in the program, similar to Sidhuisms, are called "Pidhuisms".

Politics

Sidhu won on a Bharatiya Janata Party ticket from the Amritsar seat in the Indian general elections, 2004. This Sidhu has been found guilty of manslaughter[2] by the Punjab & Haryana High Court, he has been convicted under Sec 304 of IPC for causing the death of a Gurnam Singh on December 27, 1988. Earlier on 22 September, 1999, the district and sessions judge at Patiala had acquitted Sidhu (under the political influence of the then Chief Minister of Punjab) in the same case registered under Section 304 and 34 IPC.

Guilty of Manslaughter

In December 2006, a court in India has found the former Indian cricketer and member of parliament guilty of culpable homicide. Sidhu had beaten up a man in 1988 over a petty dispute over parking vehicles in Patiala. The victim, a 65-year old man named Gurnam Singh, subsequently succumbed to the injuries that were inflicted on him. The former cricketer has resigned as a Member of Parliament after the court decision. On the 6th December, 2006, he was sentenced to three years in prison by the Punjab and Haryana High Court [3]. However he has not been detained and his sentence has been suspended till January 31, 2007 for him to appeal to the Supreme Court of India.[1]