Navjot Singh Sidhu

Navjot Singh Sidhu
Minister of Local Government, Tourism, Cultural Affairs, Archives and Museums Punjab
Incumbent
Assumed office 16 March 2017
Member of the Legislative Assembly
Incumbent
Assumed office 12 March 2017
Preceded by	Navjot Kaur Sidhu
Constituency	Amritsar East
Member of Parliament (Rajya Sabha) Nominated
In office 25 April 2016 – 18 July 2016
Preceded by	Ashok Sekhar Ganguly
Succeeded by	Roopa Ganguly
Member of Parliament
In office 2004–2014
Preceded by	Raghunandan Lal Bhatia
Succeeded by	Amarinder Singh
Constituency	Amritsar
Personal details
Born	(1963-10-20) 20 October 1963 Patiala, Punjab, India
Political party	Indian National Congress (2017–present)
Other political affiliations	Bharatiya Janata Party (2004–2016) Aawaaz-e-Punjab (2016–2017)
Spouse(s)	Navjot Kaur Sidhu
Children	2
Cricket information
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 (born 20 October 1963) is an Indian politician, television personality and former cricketer. He currently serves as the Minister of Local Government, Tourism, Cultural Affairs, Archives and Museums of the State of Punjab.^[1]

As a professional cricketer, Sidhu had a career spanning over 19 years after his first-class debut in 1981–82. After losing his place in the national team after his international debut in 1983–84, Sidhu returned to score four half-centuries in the 1987 World Cup. Playing mostly as a top-order batsman, Sidhu went on to play in 51 Tests and 136 One Day Internationals for the country. He came to be known for his six-hitting ability and earned the sobriquet 'Sixer Sidhu'.^[2] After retirement, he turned to commentary and television, most notably as a judge of comedy shows, and as a permanent guest in Comedy Nights with Kapil (2013–15) and later The Kapil Sharma Show (since 2016). He was a contestant in the reality television show Bigg Boss (2012).

Sidhu joined the Bharatiya Janata Party in 2004 and contested the general election from Amritsar. He won the election and held the seat till 2014 winning also the next election. He was nominated to the Rajya Sabha in 2016 from Punjab before he resigned from the position the same year and quitting the party. In 2017, he joined the Indian National Congress and was elected to the Punjab Legislative Assembly from Amritsar East.

Biography

Sidhu was born in a Jat Sikh family of Sidhu gotra in Patiala, in the Indian state of Punjab. His father, Sardar Bhagwant Singh was a decent cricket player and wanted to see his son Navjot as a top-class cricketer.^[3] Sidhu is an alumnus of Yadavindra Public School, Patiala. He briefly studied in Mumbai at HR College of Commerce and Economics.^[4] 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. 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 also the present president of World Jat Aryan Foundation.^[5] He is a vegetarian.^[6] He is married to Navjot Kaur Sidhu a doctor and a former member of Punjab Legislative Assembly. The couple has two children: daughter Rabia and son Karan.

Cricketing career

Navjot Singh Sidhu International cricket career lasted from 1983 until 1999. He made his Test match debut in 1983 against the West Indies at Ahmedabad, and scored 19 runs.In 1990 he was out for no wicket. He played the next match, but again did not score many runs. He was selected for the 1987 Cricket World Cup in India, where he scored 73 on his One Day International debut in a losing effort against Australia. He scored half-centuries in four of the five 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. Sidhu told in an interview that an article criticising his dismal performance changed his cricketing life. After a string of poor performances in 1983, Rajan Bala, a noted cricket columnist, wrote an article on him titled "Sidhu: The Strokeless Wonder" in Indian Express. It was an epiphany that changed his life and he started taking his cricketing career seriously. After his improved performance in 1987 world cup, the same columnist wrote an article titled "Sidhu: From Strokeless Wonder To A Palm-Grove Hitter", applauding his performance.

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 was the first Indian batsman to score more than 5 centuries in one day international.

Sidhu walked out of India's 1996 tour of England citing differences with captain Mohammad Azharuddin.^[7] Following this, he was banished from the team for ten Tests by the BCCI eventually making a return in the 1996–97 tour of West Indies. In the second Test at Queen's Park Oval, he scored a double century.^[8] The 201, his highest score in Tests lasted 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.^[9]

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 scored 27 First class centuries 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.^[10]

Commentator and television career

Sidhu started his career as a commentator when India toured Sri Lanka in 2001. 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. He started to work again for ESPN Star Sports in 2012. Nowadays he is a Hindi commentator.

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." He has acted in a TV series called Kareena Kareena as himself. He was a contestant in a reality show called the Bigg Boss 6 and had to make an exit from the show on account of political grounds.^[11]

He used to feature in a comedy show named Comedy Nights with Kapil.

Nowadays he is seen as a permanent guest on The Kapil Sharma Show.

He launched a website sherryontopp.com that covers all his sides of a sportsman, politician and commentator in presence of cricket legend Kapil Dev and Bollywood legend Amitabh Bachchan.^[12]

He was banned by the ICC from commentating in Bangladesh's games, due to racial comments thrown indirectly towards the Bangladesh team. .

Parody

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. 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.^[13] This was what Sidhu had to say after not being nominated as party's from Amritsar in the Indian general election, 2014.

"Amritsar is the place where my work and action speaks for itself. Since, I started contesting elections from this holy place, I have
promised myself never to abandon this place. Either, I will contest from Amritsar, or else I won’t contest elections"
-Navjot Singh Sidhu

Reiterating that he has no opposition to the decision as he considered himself as Arun Jaitley's protege. However, he was firm on his stand of not contesting from any constituency while accepting the decision, whole heartedly, announced by the party.^[14]

Navjot Singh Sidhu took oath as a member of the Rajya Sabha on April 28, 2016. As per reports, Sidhu was given the Rajya Sabha nomination in a bid to prevent him from joining the Aam Aadmi Party.^[15] However he resigned from the Rajya Sabha on July 18, 2016.^[16]

He along with Pargat Singh and Bains brothers formed a new political front - Aawaaz-e-Punjab claiming to fight against those working against Punjab.^[17]

In January 2017, Sidhu joined the Indian National Congress. Contesting from Amritsar East in the 2017 Punjab Assembly elections, he won the election by a margin of 42,809 votes.^[18] Third on the list of nine ministers who was sworn in was Navjot Singh Sidhu, the cricketer-turned-politician who quit the BJP last year.^[19]

Conviction for homicide

In 1991 Sidhu was accused of assaulting Gurnam Singh and causing his death.^[20] Sidhu was arrested by Punjab Police after the incident and had to spend 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 denied all charges against him.^[21] Sidhu claimed in court that he was innocent and "falsely involved in this case by the complainant party".^[20] Jaswinder Singh – nephew of Gurnam Singh – claimed that he was a witness to Sidhu's crime and was ready to testify in the Supreme Court of India.^[22]

In December 2006, Sidhu was found guilty and sentenced to a three-year prison term for culpable homicide following a road rage incident. Following the sentencing, Sidhu resigned as a Member of Parliament and in January 2007 appealed to the Supreme Court.^[23] Supreme Court stayed his conviction and sentence allowing him to contest and win the Amritsar Lok Sabha seat in February 2007.^[24]

Screen appearances

Sidhu made a cameo appearance in the 2004 Hindi film Mujhse Shaadi Karogi as a commentator during a cricket match.^[25] In the 2008 Punjabi language film Mera Pind, he appeared in a pivotal role alongside singer Harbhajan Mann, playing the tole of a non-resident Indian who returns to his motherland despite a living a successful life abroad.^[26] His most recent film appearance came in 2015 in ABCD 2; another cameo that saw him play the permanent guest in the sketch comedy The Kapil Sharma Show.^[27]

Television

Year	Show	Role(s)	Notes	Ref.
2005	Kareena Kareena			[28]
2006–2007	The Great Indian Laughter Challenge	Judge		[29]
2012	Bigg Boss 6	Contestant	15th place	[30]
2013–2016	Comedy Nights with Kapil	Permanent guest		[31]
2016–present	The Kapil Sharma Show	Permanent guest		[32]

International centuries

Test centuries

Test centuries of Navjot Singh Sidhu
No	Runs	Match	Against	City/Country	Venue	Start date	Result
[1]	116	3	New Zealand	Bangalore, India	M Chinnaswamy Stadium	12 November 1988	Won
[2]	116	9	West Indies	Kingston, Jamaica	Sabina Park	28 April 1989	Lost
[3]	106	22	England	Madras, India	MA Chidambaram Stadium	11 February 1993	Won
[4]	104	26	Sri Lanka	Colombo, Sri Lanka	Sinhalese Sports Club Ground	27 July 1994	Won
[5]	124	28	Sri Lanka	Lucknow, India	K. D. Singh Babu Stadium	18 January 1994	Won
[6]	107	33	West Indies	Nagpur, India	Vidarbha Cricket Association Ground	1 December 1994	Drawn
[7]	201	38	West Indies	Port of Spain, Trinidad	Queen's Park Oval	14 March 1997	Drawn
[8]	111	41	Sri Lanka	Colombo, Sri Lanka	R Premadasa Stadium	2 August 1997	Drawn
[9]	131	43	Sri Lanka	Mohali, India	PCA IS Bindra Stadium	19 November 1997	Drawn

ODI centuries

One Day International centuries of Navjot Singh Sidhu
No	Runs	Match	Against	City/Country	Venue	Start date	Result
[1]	108	25	Pakistan	Sharjah, UAE	Sharjah Cricket Stadium	15 October 1989	Lost
[2]	104*	40	Bangladesh	Chandigarh, India	Sector 16 Stadium	25 December 1990	Won
[3]	134*	55	England	Gwalior, India	Captain Roop Singh Stadium	4 March 1993	Won
[4]	108	63	Sri Lanka	Rajkot, India	Madhavrao Scindia Cricket Ground	15 February 1994	Won
[5]	114*	84	West Indies	Visakhapatnam, India	Indira Priyadarshini Stadium	7 November 1994	Won
[6]	101	103	Pakistan	Sharjah, UAE	Sharjah Cricket Stadium	15 April 1996	Won

International Awards

• Sidhu was named one of the five Indian Cricket Cricketers of the Year for 1989.^[33]

Test cricket

Man-of-the-match awards

No.	Opponent	Venue	Date	Match Performance[34]	Result
1	Pakistan	Jinnah Stadium, Sialkot	9 December 1989	109 runs	Draw[35]
2	West Indies	Queen's Park Oval, Port of Spain	14 March 1997	201 runs	Draw[36]

One Day International cricket

Man of the match awards

No.	Opponent	Venue	Date	Match Performance[37]	Result
1	Bangladesh	MA Aziz Stadium, Chittagong	27 October 1988	1 Ct. ; 50* (71 balls: 4x4, 1x6)	India won by 9 wickets.[38]
2	Sri Lanka	Bangabandhu National Stadium, Dhaka	4 November 1988	76* (87 balls: 4x4, 3x6)	India won by 6 wickets.[39]
3	New Zealand	Barabati Stadium, Cuttack	12 December 1988	67 (108 balls: 2x4, 1x6)	India won by 5 wickets.[40]
4	Pakistan	Sharjah Cricket Stadium, Sharjah	15 October 1989	108 (121 balls: 8x4, 1x6)	Pakistan won by 6 wickets.[41]
5	Sri Lanka	Sardar Patel Stadium, Ahmedabad	22 October 1989	80* (88 balls: 5x4, 1x6) ; 1 Ct.	India won by 6 runs.[42]
6	Sri Lanka	Sector 16 Stadium, Chandigarh	25 December 1990	104* (109 balls: 10x4, 3x6)	India won by 9 wickets.[43]
7	England	Sector 16 Stadium, Chandigarh	21 January 1993	76 (107 balls: 5x4, 2x6)	India won by 5 wickets.[44]
8	England	Captain Roop Singh Stadium, Gwalior	4 March 1993	134* (160 balls: 15x4)	India won by 3 wickets.[45]

Man-of-the-series awards

No.	Opponent/Tournament[46]	Date	Series Performance[37]	Result
1	1988 Asia Cup	October–November 1988	179 runs at an average of 59.66; 1 catch	Won
2	England tour of India	January–March 1993	287 runs at an average of 57.40; 1 catch	Draw; 3–3
3	Sri Lanka tour of India	January–February 1994	233 runs at an average of 77.66	Won; 2–1
4	1995 Asia Cup	April 1995	197 runs at an average of 98.50; 1 catch	Won

Career best performances

	Batting
	Score	Fixture	Venue	Season
Test	201	West Indies v India	Queen's Park Oval, Port of Spain	1997[47]
ODI	134*	India v England	Captain Roop Singh Stadium, Gwalior	1993[48]
FC	286	Jamaica v Indians	Sabina Park, Kingston	1989[49]
LA	139	Punjab v Jammu and Kashmir	Gandhi Sports Complex Ground, Amritsar	1996[50]

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Navjot Singh Sidhu.

Wikiquote has quotations related to: Navjot Singh Sidhu

• Navjot Singh Sidhu Distorts Gurbani
• Official Website of Navjot Singh Sidhu
• Official Profile in the Lok Sabha (Indian Parliament) Website
• Navjot Singh Sidhu at ESPNcricinfo
• Navjot Singh Sidhu at CricketArchive (subscription required)