PUNE: The credit of winning the world cup goes as much to M S Dhoni's captaincy as to Sachin Tendulkar's faith in the present captain's leadership skills.
Sharad Pawar, who was then the president of Board of Control for Cricket in India ( BCCI), said, "In August 2007 Rahul Dravid was the captain of the Indian cricket team playing in England. He expressed his willingness to step down. When I asked Rahul to recommend his successor, he said Sachin can be a good captain." Pawar, who is now the president of the International Cricket Council, said this at a function in Pune to felicitate Sachin Tendulkar's cricket coach Ramakant Achrekar. The function was held at Bal Gandharva Rangmanch on Saturday.
Pawar further said, "On Dravid's recommendation, I invited Sachin for a discussion. He recommended M S Dhoni's name as the captain because Sachin thought he is capable of handling the pressure of captaincy better. I was surprised with Sachin's recommendation, but Dhoni's name was discussed and finalised at a meeting held to select the team for the first T20 world cup in South Africa in September 2007. Now we all know Sachin's recommendation was so right because it led us to several victories including the T20 world cup and ICC world cup triumphs," Pawar said.
Pawar said that Sachin opted out of the T20 format terming it as "a fast-game suitable for young blood". "Sachin said that Rahul Dravid, Sourav Ganguly and he himself were in their mid thirties and so they should not to selected in the T20 world cup team."
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