It is better to ride a pony than a horse which throws you. 
Referring to Dinesh Mongia|Dinesh Mongia, who was like a reliable pony than Rahul Dravid|Rahul Dravid who at that time, was more like an unreliable horse, on a television broadcast (11 July 2002), during a one day match with Sri Lanka in England.
The world is all about mind and matter; I don't mind and you don't matter.
When Farooque Sheikh, host of the talk show Jeena isi ka naam hai asked him what he thinks of those who criticize his style of commentary "Jeena Isi Ka Naam Hai" on Zee TV, (17 June 2004)
This cricket is like a burger, you can have it once a week but for a whole meal, you need to return to Test cricket. More than once a week, and it will give you a tummy ache.
On Twenty20 cricket, in "Twenty20 game is 'underwear' cricket: Sidhu" in Khaleej Times (19 July 2006)
Navjot Singh Sidhu is former
IndianThe Indian cricket team is the national cricket team of India. Governed by the Board of Control for Cricket in India , it is a full member of the International Cricket Council with Test and One Day International status....
cricket star . 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.
Biography
He was born in
Patiala in the Malwa region of Punjab. Sidhu was elected to the
Lok SabhaThe Lok Sabha or House of the People is the lower house of the Parliament of India. Members of the Lok Sabha are elected by direct election under universal adult suffrage. As of 2009, there have been fifteen Lok Sabhas elected by the people of India...
as the member from
AmritsarAmritsar Lok Sabha constituency is one of the 13 Lok Sabha constituencies in Punjab state in northern India.-Assembly segments:Amritsar Lok Sabha constituency comprises nine Vidhan Sabha segments, which are:# Ajnala...
in 2004 on a
Bharatiya Janata PartyThe Bharatiya Janata Party ,; translation: Indian People's Party) is one of the two major political parties in India, the other being the Indian National Congress. Established in 1980, it is India's second largest political party in terms of representation in the parliament...
ticket; he later resigned, following his conviction for
culpable homicideManslaughter is a legal term for the killing of a human being, in a manner considered by law as less culpable than murder. The distinction between murder and manslaughter is said to have first been made by the Ancient Athenian lawmaker Dracon in the 7th century BC.The law generally differentiates...
. 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.
Cricketing career
Navjot Singh Sidhu had a volatile career as a cricketer from 1983 to 1999.
He made an uneventful international debut against the
West IndiesThe West Indian cricket team, also known colloquially as the West Indies or the Windies, is a multi-national cricket team representing a sporting confederation of 15 mainly English-speaking Caribbean countries, British dependencies and non-British dependencies.From the mid 1970s to the early 1990s,...
at
AhmedabadAhmedabad also known as Karnavati is the largest city in Gujarat, India. It is the former capital of Gujarat and is also the judicial capital of Gujarat as the Gujarat High Court has its seat in Ahmedabad...
in 1983 scoring just 19 runs in his debut
Test matchTest cricket is the longest form of the sport of cricket. Test matches are played between national representative teams with "Test status", as determined by the International Cricket Council , with four innings played between two teams of 11 players over a period of up to a maximum five days...
. He was given another chance in that series but failed again. He was selected for the
1987 Cricket World CupThe 1987 Cricket World Cup was the fourth edition of the ICC Cricket World Cup tournament. It was held from October 8 to November 8, 1987 in India and Pakistan — the first held outside England. The format was unchanged from 1983 except for a reduction in the number of overs a team played from 60...
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
EnglandEngland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
. His first ODI century came against Pakistan in
SharjahSharjah is the third largest and most populous city in the United Arab Emirates. It is located along the southern coast of the Persian Gulf on the Arabian Peninsula.Sharjah is the seat of government of the emirate of 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 WarneShane Keith Warne is a former Australian international cricketer widely regarded as one of the greatest bowlers in the history of the game. In 2000, he was selected by a panel of cricket experts as one of the five Wisden Cricketers of the Century, the only specialist bowler selected in the quintet...
.
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 RhodesJonathan Neil "Jonty" Rhodes is a former South African Test and One Day International cricketer who played for the South African cricket team between 1992 and 2003.Rhodes was born in Pietermaritzburg, Natal Province, South Africa...
being the best fielder at that time.
Commentator and Television career
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 SportsESPN Star Sports is a joint venture between The Walt Disney Company and News Corporation...
.
After he was sacked from ESPN-Star for swearing on air, he worked for
Ten SportsTEN SPORTS is a sports channel, widely broadcast in Asia. Its key programming includes Cricket, Football and sports-entertainment shows viz. WWE. Ten Sports was launched on April 1, 2002, and became the world's premier sports channel for South Asians, reaching over 55 million homes across the Arab...
. 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 ChallengeThe Great Indian Laughter Challenge is one of the very successful reality shows on Indian television. It is a competition of stand up comedians that is presented on STAR One...
." He also appeared in other similar programmes as "Funjabi Chak De."
Parody
Cyrus SahukarCyrus Sahukar is an MTV India VJ and Bollywood actor. He is known for his comic wit in shows like Semi Girebaal and other such satirical comedy shows, hosting and spoofs.-Early life:...
hosts a program on
MTVMTV, formerly an initialism of Music Television, is an American network based in New York City that launched on August 1, 1981. The original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by on-air hosts known as VJs....
"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 PartyThe Bharatiya Janata Party ,; translation: Indian People's Party) is one of the two major political parties in India, the other being the Indian National Congress. Established in 1980, it is India's second largest political party in terms of representation in the parliament...
ticket from the
AmritsarAmritsar is a city in the northern part of India and is the administrative headquarters of Amritsar district in the state of Punjab, India. The 2001 Indian census reported the population of the city to be over 1,500,000, with that of the entire district numbering 3,695,077...
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.
Conviction for Homicide
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.
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.
Sidhu claimed in court that he was innocent and "falsely involved in this case by the complainant party". 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 IndiaThe Supreme Court of India is the highest judicial forum and final court of appeal as established by Part V, Chapter IV of the Constitution of India...
.
In December 2006, Sidhu was found guilty and sentenced to a three-year prison term for
culpable homicideManslaughter is a legal term for the killing of a human being, in a manner considered by law as less culpable than murder. The distinction between murder and manslaughter is said to have first been made by the Ancient Athenian lawmaker Dracon in the 7th century BC.The law generally differentiates...
following a
road rageRoad rage is an aggressive or angry behavior by a driver of an automobile or other motor vehicle. Such behavior might include rude gestures, verbal insults, deliberately driving in an unsafe or threatening manner, or making threats. Road rage can lead to altercations, assaults, and collisions...
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 CourtThe Supreme Court of India is the highest judicial forum and final court of appeal as established by Part V, Chapter IV of the Constitution of India...
.
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 SorenShibu Soren is an Indian politician is a former Chief Minister of Jharkhand state in India. . He was sworn in as the 7th Chief Minister of Jharkhand on December 30, 2009 after winning the Jharkhand Assembly elections...
who was also a Member of Parliament and was also convicted of murder.
Therefore Sidhu was forced to resign from Parliament. The Court stayed his conviction and sentence allowing him to contest and win the Amritsar Lok Sabha seat in February 2007.
Films
He appeared as a cricket commentator in the
BollywoodBollywood is the informal term popularly used for the Hindi-language film industry based in Mumbai , Maharashtra, India. The term is often incorrectly used to refer to the whole of Indian cinema; it is only a part of the total Indian film industry, which includes other production centers producing...
film
Mujhse Shaadi KarogiMujhse Shaadi Karogi is a 2004 comedic Hindi film directed by David Dhawan. It was considered a big hit, being the third highest grossing film of the year in India. It received numerous awards and nominations.-Plot:...
. He also starred in a Punjabi movie
Mera PindMera Pind is a Punjabi movie, released date in India on 20 September 2008, directed by Manmohan Singh and produced by Manmohan Singh...
along with
Harbhajan MannHarbhajan Mann is a Punjabi singer and actor. Although not known much for his singing he soon became a Punjabi all rounder star in the entertainment industry. He got spotlight in Punjabi music industry with his astonishing performance and miraculous voice in "Husn Jawani"...
.
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