Former BCCI president and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) chief Sharad Pawar said on Sunday that it was Sachin Tendulkar who suggested Mahendra Singh Dhoni‘s name for the role of captaincy in 2007, reported ANI. 

Pawar made the revelations during a  public meeting. According to Pawar, the then captain Rahul Dravid wanted to step down from the role and a new candidate was required to take up the responsibility. Pawar was the BCCI president for a period of three years from 2005 to 2008.

He said, “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.”

He added, “I then asked Sachin Tendulkar to lead the side, but he refused the role. 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.”

Dhoni led India to triumphs in ICC Cricket World Cup in 2011 and in the ICC World T20 in 2007. After successfully leading India in the ICC Champions Trophy in 2013 in England, Dhoni became the first and the the only captain to date to have won all three ICC Trophies.