| Navjot Singh Sidhu | |
|---|---|
| Member of Parliament | |
| Incumbent | |
| Assumed office 2004 |
|
| Preceded by | Raghunandan Lal Bhatia |
| Constituency | Amritsar |
| Personal details | |
| Born | October 20, 1963 Patiala |
| Political party | BJP |
| Spouse(s) | Navjot Kaur |
| Residence | Amritsar |
| Religion | Sikhism |
| As of July 01, 2009 Source: [3] |
|
| Personal information | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Navjot Singh Sidhu | |||
| Born | 20 October 1963 Patiala, Punjab, India |
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| Nickname | Sixer Sidhu, Sheri | |||
| Batting style | Right-handed | |||
| Bowling style | Right-arm medium | |||
| Role | Batsman | |||
| International information | ||||
| National side | India | |||
| Test debut (cap 166) | 12 November 1983 v West Indies | |||
| Last Test | 6 January 1999 v New Zealand | |||
| ODI debut (cap 61) | 9 October 1987 v Australia | |||
| Last ODI | 20 September 1998 v Pakistan | |||
| Domestic team information | ||||
| Years | Team | |||
| 1981–2000 | Punjab | |||
| Career statistics | ||||
| Competition | Test | ODI | FC | LA |
| Matches | 51 | 136 | 157 | 205 |
| Runs scored | 3202 | 4,413 | 9,571 | 7,186 |
| Batting average | 42.13 | 37.08 | 44.31 | 41.77 |
| 100s/50s | 9/15 | 6/33 | 27/50 | 10/55 |
| Top score | 201 | 134* | 286 | 139 |
| Balls bowled | 6 | 4 | 104 | 10 |
| Wickets | 0 | – | – | – |
| Bowling average | – | – | – | – |
| 5 wickets in innings | – | – | – | – |
| 10 wickets in match | – | – | – | – |
| Best bowling | – | – | – | – |
| Catches/stumpings | 9/– | 20/– | 50/– | 31/– |
| Source: espncricinfo, 1 January 2009 | ||||
Navjot Singh Sidhu (Punjabi: ਨਵਜੋਤ ਸਿੰਘ ਸਿੱਧੂ, born 20 October 1963) is former Indian cricketer . After retirement from cricket Navjot Singh Sidhu took up television commentary, and politics. He was later forced to resign from his political position because he was convicted of homicide.
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He was born in Patiala in the Malwa region of Punjab. Sidhu was elected to the Lok Sabha as the member from Amritsar in 2004 on a Bharatiya Janata Party ticket; he later resigned, following his conviction for culpable homicide. After the Supreme Court stayed his conviction, he successfully contested the Amritsar Lok Sabha seat, defeating his Congress rival, State Finance Minister Surinder Singla, by 77,626 votes. He is a teetotaller and a vegetarian.[4]
Navjot Singh Sidhu had a volatile career as a cricketer 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 first 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.
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 884 ODI runs.
Sidhu's finest moment in Tests was his 201 against West Indies in 1996-97, a defiant knock lasting 11 hours. Known for his tendency to attack spinners, he cracked eight sixes in 124 against Sri Lanka in 1993-94, and four fifties in five innings against the Australians in 1997-98, deliberately singling out Shane Warne.[1]
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 an 18-year career.
Some of the nicknames he earned were "Sixer Sidhu" for his prolific batting performances and "Jonty Singh" with respect to his improved fielding in his late career, Jonty Rhodes being the best fielder at that time.[2]
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 Sports. As a commentator, Sidhu was noted for his one-liners, which came to be known as "Sidhuisms".
After he was sacked from ESPN-Star for swearing on air, he worked for Ten Sports. He also regularly appears as a "cricket analyst" on various Indian news channels and is noted for being possibly the most hated and ridiculed figure in international commentary today.
He also figured as a judge on the television programme - "The Great Indian Laughter Challenge." He also appeared in other similar programmes as "Funjabi Chak De."
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."
Sidhu won on a Bharatiya Janata Party ticket from the Amritsar seat in the Indian general elections, 2004. After resigning due to a court case against him, he stood again after the ruling was stayed. He won a by-election with a good majority. In the 2009 general elections, he kept the Amritsar seat defeating Om Prakash Soni of INC by 6858 votes.[3]
On 27 December 1988 at 2.40 pm Navjot Sidhu was involved in an argument regarding his car being overtaken by Gurnam Singh. Sidhu pulled him out of his car and assaulted him. Later Sidhu fled from the spot. The victim Gurnam Singh was taken to a nearby hospital where he was declared dead. The incident was seen by several eyewitnesses.[4]
Sidhu was immediately arrested after the incident and spent several days lodged in a Patiala jail. It was reported that Sidhu had an accomplice who helped him in the murder of Gurnam Singh, the name of the accomplice was Bhupinder Singh Sandhu. However Sidhu vehemently denied all charges against him.[5]
Sidhu claimed in court that he was innocent and "falsely involved in this case by the complainant party".[6] Jaswinder Singh - the nephew of the victim Gurnam Singh - was an eyewitness to the incident. He said that he was a witness to Sidhu's crime and was ready to testify in the Supreme Court of India.[7]
In December 2006, Sidhu was found guilty and sentenced to a three-year prison term for culpable homicide following a road rage incident. Sidhu had allegedly assaulted 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. Sidhu resigned as a Member of Parliament after the court decision and in January 2007 appealed to the Supreme Court.[8]
The murder of Gurnam Singh by Navjot Sidhu and his subsequent conviction created a political controversy because he was a member of Parliament of India at that time. He was supported by the BJP party. On the other hand BJP had previously criticized Congress Party for supporting Shibu Soren who was also a Member of Parliament and was also convicted of murder. Therefore Sidhu was forced to resign from Parliament.[9] The Court stayed his conviction and sentence allowing him to contest and win the Amritsar Lok Sabha seat in February 2007.[10]
He appeared as a cricket commentator in the Bollywood film Mujhse Shaadi Karogi. He also starred in a Punjabi movie Mera Pind along with Harbhajan Mann. [11]
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