CHANDIGARH, INDIA, REUTER — An Indian court has put off issuing an arrest warrant against test cricketer Navjot Singh Sidhu following the death of a man after an altercation over a car crash.

The Patiala Court stayed until Monday an order for 25yearold Sidhu’s arrest after his lawyer argued on Saturday that the other driver, who died in hospital following the incident, was already ill and had simply collapsed.

* The judge agreed not to issue an arrest warrant or to set bail until further medical reports had been obtained, a preliminary postmortem gave no cause of death.

Sidhu, a right-handed batsman, first played for India in 1983 and was a member of the Indian Squad which beat New Zealand earlier this month.

Police said the cars collided when he and a companion named Rupinder Singh were driving in the Punjab town of Patiala on Tuesday. Sidhu’s lawyer, Jasbir Singh Chahal, said the dead man, Punjab truck driver’s union leader Gurnam Singh, had collapsed without being hit by Sidhu.

Article extracted from this publication >>  January 6, 1989