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'My body is in terrible shape…': Sachin Tendulkar's firm stance in reply to BCCI's offer gave India the MS Dhoni era
Explaining the reasons for picking Dhoni ahead of more established cricketers like Yuvraj and Sehwag, Tendulkar said Dhoni was a great reader of the game.
Legendary Indian cricketer Sachin Tendulkar said he was offered the captaincy of the Indian cricket team for the third time in 2007 by then-BCCI president Sahrad Pawar but he declined it because his body was not in a shape to cope with the rigours of batting and captaincy at the same time in all formats. Tendulkar has always been a crisis captain for Team India. His first stint started after the 1996 World Cup when India decided to move ahead from Mohammad Azharuddin. But in the next two years, India didn't get much success. Tendulkar stepped down and Azharuddin was reinstated as the captain and even led India in the 1999 ODI World Cup - his third World Cup as captain.
India failed to reach the semi-finals of the tournament but after that another huge storm rocked Indian cricket. The match fixing scandal broke out and Azharuddin was one of the accused. He was sacked as captain and dropped from the team. BCCI once again requested Tendulkar to take over the realms and so he did. But in the 1999-2000 tour to Australia, India were hammered in both formats. After another disappointing series at home against South Africa, Tendulkar quit. In came Sourav Ganguly as the captain.
Indian cricket prospered under Ganguly's leadership for nearly five years and he was replaced in 2005 by Rahul Dravid. But after Dravid quit following a disastrous 2007 ODI World Cup campaign where India were knocked out from the group stages, the board and the selectors were in a fix. They again went to Tendulkar to take up the captaincy till any of the younger cricketers are ready to take the mantle. But the great batter decided it and proposed MS Dhoni's name.
Why Tendulkar suggested Dhoni's name as India captain
"Actually it was the president of the BCCI in 2007 Mr Sharad Pawar asked me to lead India. I said my body was in terrible shape. I don't think a captain who is every now and then gonna inside the dressing room, have his ankle strapped or some treatment on his shoulder. It's not the ideal thing to happen to a team," Tendulkar said on Jio Cinema.
Explaining the reasons for picking Dhoni ahead of more established cricketers like Yuvraj Singh and Virender Sehwag, Tendulkar said Dhoni was a great reader of match situations and was very calm under pressure.
"My impression of MS Dhoni was very good because I have been fielding in the slips. I have had multiple conversations with him. Invariably I would ask him what he would have done in that situation. The answers were balanced. He was very very intuitive. He was instinctive and his match awareness of that given was remarkable.
"His mind is very stable, he's calm, he's instinctive, and takes the right decisions. At that time, I recommended him to the BCCI President and said, 'I see leadership qualities in him, so you should consider him," he said.
The move turned out to be a historic one. Dhoni tasted success immediately. He led a young Indian side to the inaugural T20 World Cup title in South Africa in 2007. He was announced as the ODI and T20I captain of India while Anil Kumble was given the mantle of the Test side. Kumble retired during the home series against Australia in 2008 and Dhoni took over as India's all-format captain.
Under Dhoni's leadership, India won the T20 World Cup, the ODI World Cup in 2011, the Champions Trophy in 2013 and also won the Test mace in 2009-10.
