page_title: Navjot Singh Sidhu
section_title: Commentator and television career
hierarchical_section_title: Navjot Singh Sidhu / Commentator and television career
caption_attribution_description: Sanjay Dutt,Navjot Singh Siddhu, Isa Guha on DLF IPL Extraaa Innings show
context_page_description: Navjot Singh Sidhu is an Indian politician, television personality and former cricketer. He was the Minister of Local Government, Tourism & Cultural Affairs of the State of Punjab.
  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 following his international debut in 1983–84, he 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 his country. He came to be known for his six-hitting ability and earned the sobriquet "Sixer Sidhu". 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 and later The Kapil Sharma Show. He was a contestant in the reality television show Bigg Boss and was seen in the show Kyaa Hoga Nimmo Kaa.
  Sidhu joined the Bharatiya Janata Party in 2004 and contested the general election from Amritsar that year. He won the election and held the seat till 2014 winning also the next election.
context_section_description: 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". Sony Max that broadcast the games from the series launched a website, sidhuisms.com, where one-liners from his commentary were posted as "Sidhuism of the day" and contests held for users to pick his best one-liner.
  After he was sacked from ESPN-Star for swearing on air, Sidhu was signed up for commentary on Ten Sports. He also regularly appeared as an expert on various Indian news channels. Sidhu started to work again for ESPN Star Sports in 2012. He was a part of the team that commentated for Sony during the 2014 season of the Indian Premier League. This led to a dispute with Star India who alleged that Sidhu had breached his ₹22.5 crore contract with them by working for their competitor, and sought a refund.
  Sidhu also figured as a judge on the television programme The Great Indian Laughter Challenge. He also appeared in other similar programmes, such as Funjabi Chak De. He has acted in a TV series called Kareena Kareena as himself. He was a contestant on the reality show Bigg Boss 6, and had to make an exit from the show on account of political grounds in 2012.
  In 2013, Sidhu was seen in the comedy show Comedy Nights with Kapil as a permanent guest until the show ended in 2016. He was seen as a permanent guest on The Kapil Sharma Show season 1 and 2 and Family Time With Kapil Sharma.
  In early 2019, Sidhu caused controversy when he was interpreted as supporting Pakistan, in his response to the Pulwama Terrorist Attack that killed 40 personnel of India's border security forces. He was asked to leave a popular comedy show on Sony TV that he had been a guest on for some time, and was replaced by Archana Puran Singh.
  Cyrus Sahukar used to host 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".
  Sidhu made a cameo appearance in the 2004 Hindi film Mujhse Shaadi Karogi as a commentator during a cricket match. In the 2008 Punjabi language film Mera Pind, he appeared in a pivotal role alongside singer Harbhajan Mann, playing the role of a non-resident Indian who returns to his motherland despite living a successful life abroad. 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.
caption: Sidhu (center) on Extraaa Innings T20 during IPL 2012 with Isa Guha (right) and guest Sanjay Dutt (left)
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