The electioneering fever has just started dissipating. After taking a sabbatical from active politics for the duration of the 2024 general elections, former Test cricketer turned politician-cum-sports commentator, may need a call before he returns to politics.
“I am a man of one thing at a time. When I go for cricket, it is cricket alone. And when I am in politics, I talk and work on politics alone,” he told me on the sidelines of the T20 World Cup cricket at Nassau International Cricket Stadium.
Accompanied by two other former Indian Test cricketers, Harbhajan Singh and L. Balaji, Navjot Sidhu is in New York for the T20 World Cup.
“It is a land of opportunities. If Test playing New Zealand has a population of 5 million, one region in New York has the same number of people. The USA has enormous marketing potential.
“Cricket has been chartering to new territories. It keeps grabbing opportunities to spread its wings,” says Navjot Sidhu.
Asked about the recent political developments in the country back home, he says, “I work on one thing at a time. It is now time for cricket.”
When I persisted about his immediate next plans, Navjot came,e out saying: “I was doing political rallies and all political work required him. They did not want me to continue. So I moved to cricket.
“So when I get a call to be back in politics, I will decide,” he adds saying that the results of
the just concluded Lok Sabha elections were indicative of the general mood of the people.
“AAP was a disappointment. People had high expectations from it. But it failed to deliver. It is why it could end up a poor second behind Congress in the general elections winning only three of 13 seats.
“It has failed the people of Punjab,” he concluded.
Harbhajan Singh, who is a sitting Rajya Sabha member, however, refused to talk about politics back at home.
“Oh really, AAP won three seats,” he quipped saying he was here for cricket.
While talking about T20 World Cup he said that bowling was an important wing of the game as was batting. It is not that bowlers are reduced to a machine to keep throwing balls for the batters to slog. After all, bowlers, too, need respect and command. It is good that bowlers are dominating even if the pitches are being criticized for their uneven bounce.
(Prabhjot Singh is a veteran journalist with over three decades of experience of 14 years with Reuters News and 30 years with The Tribune Group, covering a wide spectrum of subjects and stories. He has covered Punjab and Sikh affairs for more than three decades besides covering seven Olympics and several major sporting events and hosting TV shows.)
