Freddy Sidhwa

Khaleej Times

Freddy Sidhwa is an 81-year-old Indian businessman. He plays club cricket every weekend in Dubai despite his old age and recently played at the famous Lord's Cricket Ground in London with former England captain Kevin Pietersen - Video by MUhammad Sajjad

Transcript

00:00 Hello and welcome to the Khalid's Times.

00:11 This is Ritu Raj reporting from the Ocean Fair International Cricket Ground.

00:16 It's a beautiful cricket ground as you can see in the background.

00:19 It's in the Dubai Investment Park built by the passionate cricket fan that the UAE has,

00:25 Mr. Freddy Sidwa.

00:27 And among his accomplishments in cricket has been that he got the wicket of none other

00:33 than the former New Zealand captain, Brandon McAlum.

00:37 Thank you Ritu Raj.

00:38 I think Mr. Sidwa you are such an inspiration that people like you certainly prove that

00:43 age is just a number.

00:46 For us also, to get up early in the morning and to do some exercise, forget about playing

00:52 a sport like cricket.

00:55 But for you to be able to continue this even at this age of 81 is quite remarkable and

01:01 it's an inspiring story for so many others.

01:04 So how do you keep yourself fit?

01:06 See I think main thing is everything is here in your mind.

01:12 You have to be mentally strong and if you are mentally strong person, you can achieve

01:17 everything and you should have a determination in life that I have to do this.

01:24 Because sometimes you are unsuccessful but that doesn't mean you have to give up something.

01:30 So you have to be determined that yes I have to do this.

01:34 So to do that you should be little disciplined.

01:38 And I am slight, I would say so that I am a little disciplined man.

01:43 I like certain things, punctuality, everything in my life and I am an early bird.

01:50 So I get up at 3, take a shower and then immediately do one hour yoga exercises and then go out

01:58 from the house for a walk.

02:00 I walk about half an hour, 45 minutes and that's it.

02:06 I mean then the day goes well.

02:09 So after that I go to the office and spend my day, full day there in the office till

02:15 4, 5 o'clock.

02:17 You turned your life around as a successful businessman after coming to Dubai.

02:21 As you said Dubai is a land of opportunities.

02:23 You came to work here, came here for a job, you worked for a company, then you started

02:28 your own company very successfully and it's been an incredible success story over the

02:33 years in Dubai.

02:34 But Dubai also gave you an opportunity to play cricket and it also gave you an opportunity

02:39 to play cricket with some big names.

02:42 So can you tell us some of your memories to our readers?

02:45 Well, yes, that's right.

02:48 I mean because I am one of the clients of J.P. Morgan and they make an event, a yearly

02:54 event they have at Lodz and I feel that I am one of the fortunate ones who has played

03:02 at Lodz and not only once or twice but ten times.

03:06 This was my tenth year and that also to play with legions like I mean, you know, some of

03:12 the big names and every year they are different and every year there are about eight to ten

03:18 or fifteen earlier these numbers were more and they were playing with us.

03:23 And then you share the same dressing room, same long room where you go and have your

03:29 dinner and breakfast and you know with those sort of people.

03:33 So I mean Sunil Gavaskar was one of the ones, I mean every year he used to come but whenever

03:39 now there are a lot of international tournaments going on and he's there as a commentator or

03:46 something where he cannot make it every year.

03:49 But he was a regular comer.

03:50 Wasim Akram, he is one of the very close friends of mine.

03:55 Again I have played every year, he used to turn up.

03:58 Last year he couldn't make it.

04:00 So these are the big names, I mean, who they were always part of it.

04:06 And as I said, I'm very fortunate to be there because some of the international players

04:11 they can't make it at lots.

04:14 And then when you are in the dressing room, you see all their records, you know, who had

04:19 done so many centuries, who had taken five wickets and more.

04:23 The honors board.

04:24 The honors board, yeah.

04:25 So I mean this is something, great feeling.

04:29 As soon as you walk in, I mean, you feel that ah, where you are playing.

04:35 But also on the main stadium.

04:37 You spoke about the honors board at the Lords Cricket Ground, which is the most prestigious

04:42 cricket ground in the world.

04:44 And it's a ground where even Mr. Sunil Gavaskar and Sachin Tendulkar did not have a test century.

04:50 No, their names are not there.

04:51 Their names are not there on the honors board.

04:54 But Mr. Freddie Sidhu's name, if not in the honors board, but at the Lords Cricket Ground

05:00 history would always be there as though as you are the one who took the wicket of Brandon

05:04 McClung in one of those community matches.

05:07 This is one of those, I think luck, I would say.

05:11 The whole experience.

05:12 Yeah, yeah, yeah.

05:13 I mean, he was betting so well.

05:15 Earlier, he had hit a lot of sixes and then he hit me also for a six.

05:20 And then I asked my skipper, I says, you better go on the boundary line and be there.

05:28 So he went, but he was not on the boundary.

05:30 Otherwise, the first ball, it would have been caught.

05:33 OK, second ball again, I'm going to hit for a six and big six.

05:37 I mean, it went into the stadium.

05:40 So the next ball again, he wanted to hit me.

05:43 But luckily, I just turned the ball around and he missed it and he got stumped.

05:50 And he was disheartened, of course.

05:53 But it was part of the thing when he was just retiring.

06:00 And that was his last match and then he retired also.

06:04 So I mean, it was a great honor.

06:05 Those days he was in, I mean, like a, you know, full A. So that's the time, I mean,

06:13 you take some wicket, which is a very proud moment for somebody.

06:18 Thank you so much for giving us our time and showing us around your beautiful, beautiful

06:22 cricket ground.

06:23 The matches just got over.

06:25 So what was your performance like today?

06:28 Today was a really bad performance from my side.

06:32 I got out for a duck because I just hit on the cover and I got caught over there.

06:39 So couldn't match a second over.

06:42 And yeah, I bowled two overs, three overs.

06:46 And the bowling went very well.

06:49 Didn't give very much runs.

06:50 I might have given about four or five runs in three overs.

06:54 So that is it.

06:57 Didn't get any wickets.

07:00 So you don't have success every time.

07:03 I mean, here we have got good skill of cricketers.

07:08 Even the opening teams, sometimes they are really good.

07:10 OK, thanks once again.

07:12 Thank you so much.

07:13 Thank you so much for inviting us to this beautiful cricket ground.

07:15 Thank you.

07:16 Thank you.

07:16 [MUSIC PLAYING]

07:20 (upbeat music)

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