Sajjan Singh Cheema is a former

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

player from

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

. He represented India in

1982 Asian Games The 9th Asian Games ( hi, 1982 एशियाई खेल) were held from 19 November to 4 December 1982, in Delhi, India. 74 Asian and Asian Games records were broken at the event. This was also the first Asiad to be held under the aegis of ...

and other international tournaments and matches including Asian Basketball Championship in 1981, 1983 and 1985. He was honoured with

Arjuna award The Arjuna Award, officially known as Arjuna Awards for Outstanding Performance in Sports and Games, is the second-highest sporting honour of India, the highest being the Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award. The award is named after Arjuna, one ...

in 1999 and

Maharaja Ranjit Singh Award The Maharaja Ranjit Singh Award, is an award given by the Government of Punjab for excellence and achievement in the service of Punjab in the field of Sport. This can be at the Olympic level, World Championship level, national and other internat ...

in 1983.

Early life

Sajjan Singh was born in 1957 in Dabulian village in

Kapurthala Kapurthala is a city in Punjab state of India. It is the administrative headquarters of Kapurthala District. It was the capital of the Kapurthala State, a princely state in British India. The aesthetic mix of the city with its prominent build ...

district in

Punjab Punjab (; Punjabi: پنجاب ; ਪੰਜਾਬ ; ; also romanised as ''Panjāb'' or ''Panj-Āb'') is a geopolitical, cultural, and historical region in South Asia, specifically in the northern part of the Indian subcontinent, comprising ...

state. He studied at Kamalia Khalsa High School Kapurthala and at Sport College

Jalandhar Jalandhar is the third most-populous city in the Indian state of Punjab and the largest city in Doaba region. Jalandhar lies alongside the Grand Trunk Road and is a well-connected rail and road junction. Jalandhar is northwest of the state ...

Career

He started playing basketball in 1976 and first participated in Inter university tournament held in

Jaipur Jaipur (; Hindi Language, Hindi: ''Jayapura''), formerly Jeypore, is the List of state and union territory capitals in India, capital and largest city of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of Rajasthan. , the city had a pop ...

in 1976. His first played national from Andhra Pradesh and later went on to represent Punjab for more than a decade. He played for India in the FIBA Asia Basketball Championship teams in 1981, 1983, and 1985, and represented the country in the Asian Games in 1982.He retired from playing in 1994. He served as SP with Punjab Police and additionally the Deputy Commissioner of Police (Traffic) Ludhiana.

Political career

He joined the

Aam Aadmi Party The Aam Aadmi Party (; AAP) is a political party in India, as one of the national political parties. The AAP was founded in November 2012 by Arvind Kejriwal and his then-companions following the 2011 Indian anti-corruption movement, popular ...

(AAP) in April 2016. The main motive to join AAP was to improve India's Education and Sports and also to make India a drug free country .

Personal life

His brothers Balkar Singh and Gurmeet Singh and cousin Kuldeep Singh Cheema also played basketball and represented India. Guneet Kaur the daughter of Sajjan Singh has played in the under-17 category at the national level. His nephew Amritpal singh cheema is international kabbadi player famous with title name know as Shurli khiranwalia Being appointed as the Candidate for Aam Aadmi Party from Sultanpur Lodhi Constituency for the Punjab elections of 2017.

References

External links

Arjuna Award

at punjabbasketball.org (archived) Indian men's basketball players Recipients of the Arjuna Award Basketball players from Punjab, India Asian Games competitors for India Indian police officers People from Kapurthala 1957 births Living people Indian Sikhs Aam Aadmi Party politicians from Delhi Shiromani Akali Dal politicians {{India-basketball-bio-stub