Sachin Tendulkar rejected India captaincy role in 2007: Sharad Pawar

MUMBAI: Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief and former BCCI president Sharad Pawar on Sunday revealed how Master Blaster Sachin Tendulkar suggested Mahendra Singh Dhoni's name for India's leadership way back in 2007.

While addressing a public meeting on Sundar, Pawar revealed how Rahul Dravid wanted to leave captaincy in 2007 and a new candidate had to be found for leading the national team.

Pawar served as the BCCI president from 2005 to 2008.

"I remember India had gone to England in 2007. At that time, Rahul Dravid was the captain. I was there in England then and Dravid came to meet me. He told me how he no longer wanted to lead India. He told me how the captaincy was affecting his batting. He told me that he should be relieved from the captaincy. I then asked Sachin Tendulkar to lead the side, but he refused the role," said Pawar during a public meeting.

"I told Sachin that if both of you and Dravid do not want to lead the side, how will we go about things? Then Sachin told me that we have one more player in the country who could lead the side and his name is none other than MS Dhoni. After that, we gave the leadership to Dhoni," he added. Agencies

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