Sidhu still hits verbal sixes

– As a Test cricketer and the brashest commentator on Indian television, Navjot Singh Sidhu (above) got under the skin of some of the sport’s biggest names and offended millions of fans.

Now the 53-year-old jester is hoping to shake up India’s political scene by fronting the opposition Congress Party’s bid to win back power in the state of Punjab, ridiculing opponents in his inimitable style.

“I’m here to hit them out the ground and out of our state,” he told a rally last week in the north of the state, smacking an imaginary six into the raucous crowd with a wafted bat.

The chief target of Sidhu’s sledging is Punjab’s current leader Prakash Singh Badal, an 89-year-old ally of Prime Minister Narendra Modi whose son Sukhbir Singh Badal is the state’s deputy chief minister.

The crowd roared with laughter when he quipped that “their roads are so full of potholes they turn the curd in your stomachs into lassi”.

“You promised 24-hour free electricity, but we only have power for 12 hours a day – the remaining 12 hours are free of power.”

His shoot-from-the-hip style has frequently landed him in hot water such as when he threatened to club Pakistan’s Aamer Sohail with a bat during a Test match.

He got up the nose of England legend Geoff Boycott, telling him on air that “you are like a ship stuck in fog. You just keep blowing your horn. You know nothing of what you are talking.” – AFP