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Navjot Singh Sidhu has had a volatile international career.

He made an uneventful international debut against the West Indies at Ahmedabad in 1983 scoring just 19 runs in his debut Test match.

He was given another chance in that series but failed again. He was selected for the 1987 cricket World Cup 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 England.

His maiden ODI century came against Pakistan in 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.

In 2006, the Punjab and Haryana High Court found Sidhu guilty of culpable homicide, not amounting to murder, in a case dating back to an incident in Patiala in 1988.
In the case, Sidhu and an associate had been charged with assaulting Gurnam Singh in a dispute over the parking of vehicles outside the State Bank of Patiala.

The victim later died of his injuries. In 1999, Sidhu was acquitted by the Patiala district court but the Punjab government and the victim's son filed an appeal in the high court. At the time of the incident Sidhu was one of India's frontline batsmen, on his way to establishing a reputation as a big-hitting opener.

He played 51 Tests and 136 one-day internationals before retiring in 1999. His career post cricket has been as eventful; he first established a reputation as a TV commentator with his homespun "Sidhuisms".

In the last national general elections he contested the
Amritsar seat in his home state of Punjab, winning easily as a
candidate of the right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party.

Sidhu reacted to the news by offering to resign his parliamentary seat, which will come as a blow to the BJP. Punjab is due for local elections next year and Sidhu was its star campaigner.