New Delhi: Navjot Singh Sidhu's journey from a cricket star to BJP's star campaigner has been quite eventful and full of ups and downs.
As noted Cricket journalist Rajan Bala put it, Sidhu transformed himself from a 'strokless wonder' to a 'Palm-Grove Hitter' with sheer hard work, dedication and sincerity.
The initial days of his cricketing career were loosely action-packed. In his international debut in 1983 he struggled with his performance and managed to score only 19 runs against West Indies.
After somehow managing to score 73 runs against Australia, he was elected in the 1987 Indian World Cup Team.
His performance in World Cup matches was not something that could have kept the spectators glued to their seats.
But then came a point from where the cricketer in Sidhu came out in open.
His first ODI century came in the year 1989 against Pakistan.
But this was not it; he played a fantabulous innings against England in 1993 and scored 134 which later became his highest ODI score and Sidhu himself rated it as the best inning of his career.
He became the first ever Indian batsman to score more than 5 centuries in ODIs.
He scored 201 runs against West Indies which is considered to be the finest game ever played by Sidhu in his entire career.
Grabbing over 7000 runs in over 100 ODIs and 27 centuries in his 18-years of cricketing career, Sidhu announced his retirement from international cricket in 1999.
With immense knowledge of the game, he used his skills as a commentator and became popular for his one-liners which later came to be know as `Sidhuisms'.
Over a period of time his commentary became a treat for his audience.
In 2004, he entered politics and won Amritsar Lok Sabha seat representing BJP. Sidhu's alleged involvement in Gurnam Singh's murder led to his resignation but the eclipse on his political career was short-lived.
The ruling in the case was stayed and he contested elections again. He was reelected from Amritsar seat in 2007 by-elections.
In 2009 general elections he won from Amritsar seat defeating Congress representative Om Prakash Soni with a margin of 6858 votes.
In 2014 Lok Sabha polls, the BJP sidelined Sidhu and fielded Arun Jaitley from Amritsar.
