Gurdaspur may well end up scoring a zilch when it comes to playing cricket. Having said that, one thing is clear that Navjot Singh Sidhu’s has a decent legion of fans, and fanatics, in this city. The only problem is nobody has ever cared to study the man’s persona.

Call him a player of the sinister game of political opportunism or term him as highly ambitious to the extent where he cares a dime for the man on the other side, the man holds a personality which has not been understood by many. Having said that, one thing is certain. Sidhu has become controversy’s favourite child.

In 2004, Sidhu was in Pakistan for a commentary stint. Midway into the tour, he got a call from India. On the other side was a senior BJP leader, who asked him, if he was interested in contesting from the Amritsar parliamentary constituency. He replied in the affirmative. That was the time when a maverick politician was born.

Unknown to many, six years before that call he had got a message from Sonia Gandhi asking him to contest the 1998 General Election. Sidhu, citing his cricket commitments, declined. In 1999, he requested the Congress high command to give him the ticket to contest from Patiala parliamentary seat. This time it was the high command’s turn to decline.

Sensing that politics was not his cup of tea, he left for England to do commentary for the 1999 World Cup. He gained instant ‘fame’ as he started mauling the spoken word with a distinctive yet entertaining concoction of mixed metaphors and garbled clichés. These included “Australian wickets are like newly-wed wives. You never know which way they will turn when touched.”

TV producers loved his style. Their TRPs started soaring. His ‘shayaris’ tested your patience and his dialogues, also known as Sidhuisms, became impossible to avoid till you put the TV on the mute. He, nevertheless, was a success in his new profession.

A flashback into his life as a cricketer will give a better insight into the character of the man considered to be a fighter both figuratively and literally!

“Spotlight on Navjot Sidhu, George Bush.” ‘The Sydney Morning Herald’ carried this lead the day President George Bush arrived Down Under in the fall of 1992. The same day the cricketer had landed as reinforcement for the beleaguered Azharuddin led team. The world media had focused its attention simultaneously on the most powerful man on earth and the tall and wiry Sardar. For his Punjabi brethren, it was a moment to be proud of because he had always been epitomising the indomitable spirit of Punjabis.

In 1996, the ‘fighter’ in him surfaced but at a most inopportune moment. The Indian team during its tour of Old Blighty under the captaincy of Mohammad Azharuddin, was going through a rough patch. The skipper made life ‘uncomfortable’ for him by using some words which ‘offended’ him although they are very much normal to be heard in the alleys of Azhar’s hometown of Hyderabad. With his self-respect bruised, Sidhu took the first flight back home. Foreign cricket writers, including Peter Roebuck, claimed he had jumped ship when his country needed him the most.

It is imperative to divide Sidhu’s career into two parts — the pre 1983 and the post 1987 Reliance world cup periods. In 1983, he made a not so impressive debut against the might of the Clive Lloyd-led West Indies. In domestic cricket, he developed this habit of chickening out of first class matches. Cricket reporters remained busy writing his obituaries.

Among this tribe was Rajan Bala. He wrote a piece titled ‘Sidhu-A strokeless wonder’.

The cricketer pasted this article on his bedroom mirror in his Patiala house. As events later proved, it was this very piece that motivated him into making a spectacular comeback. He started reconstructing his career layer by layer, brick by brick. The cemented driveway at his residence became his pitch. Local boys would be asked to flood the driveway with water and then would be asked to bounce golf balls at him. Never the one to be a decent player of the rising ball, he did the next best thing. He slowly mastered the habit of weaving and ducking away from the bouncing cherry. He adopted a tortuous fitness schedule and weight training, which earlier was an option, was religiously adhered to.

His mental attitude too underwent a change. The Sheldons and the Archers, that dotted his drawing room, were consigned to the backburner. In came psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud and the MCC coaching manual, the last one meant to improve his basics. The saga of survival of an old man fighting the vagaries of nature in Ernest Hemingway’s classic ‘The old man and the sea’ held sway. This one book energised him like no other one would do.

The cog had fallen in place and the wheel had started moving. The art of playing spin was taken care of. Peter Taylor and John Emburey, both considered to be finest exponents of off spin bowling in the world, became his first targets. Perfectly pitched deliveries would be found 20 feet deep into the stands. He concentrated on the pragmatic, with no ground given to impulse or appearance.

The 1987 Reliance Cup was played in the sub-continent. A rejuvenated Sidhu was drafted into the national team. After the tournament was over, the saying doing the rounds was that if Sachin and Sidhu get going, India will achieve the target in 20 overs flat. Whatever the odds against him, the man still retains the Phoenix-like quality to rise from the ashes as and when the situation demands

Akalis start campaign

With the mainline political outfits still engaged in the exercise of identifying their candidates, two-time ex-Gurdaspur MLA Gurbachan Singh Babbehali has already started campaigning. This seat has 113 villages and 27 wards of the municipal committee. Babbehali has already toured the rural areas once and is now ready to visit them a second time. He surely knows the meaning of ‘The early bird catches the worm.” His son, Amarjot Babbehali says his father is banking on the anti-incumbency wave that is in place “following the Congress MLA’s inability to bring in developmental projects.”

Sri Hargobindpur MLA fans out among masses

Sri Hargobindpur MLA Balwinder Singh Laddi is a busy man these days. He regularly reaches out to the masses to inform them about the freebies being given by the Channi government. “In my assembly seat, bills of 29,000 people whose load was less than 2 kW have been waived off. This amounts to nearly Rs 19 crore. Well done MLA, but who will tell the people from where will the CM bring money needed to finance the freebies? Some food for thought!