'BCCI offered me captaincy in 2007' - Sachin Tendulkar reveals unknown story behind Dhoni's appointment as India skipper

Legendary India captain MS Dhoni is counted among the most successful white-ball skippers in the history of the game as the Ranchi-born cricketer has won all three major ICC titles as captain. However, the wicket-keeper batter was not the first-choice captain of India before being handed over the captaincy duties in 2007.

Recently, legendary India batter Sachin Tendulkar revealed that the BCCI had offered him captaincy back in 2007 but the batting maestro declined the offer as his body was in terrible shape. Tendulkar further disclosed that he instead recommended Dhoni’s name for the role after observing his calm demeanour and ability to make the right decisions.

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"The BCCI offered me captaincy in 2007, but my body was in terrible shape. My observation of MS Dhoni was very good. His mind is very stable, he's calm, he's instinctive, and makes the right decisions. I recommended him for the captaincy,” said Tendulkar on Jio Cinema.

Notably, Dhoni’s appointment began a golden period in Indian cricket history as he led a young side to a historic triumph in the inaugural T20 World Cup in 2007. With every passing year, the ‘Captain Cool’ continued to add more feathers in his cap leading them to a momentous Commonwealth Bank Series victory in Australia in 2008.

Under Dhoni’s leadership, India further climbed to the top of the ICC Test rankings for the first time in their history. In 2010, under his leadership, the Men in Blue won the Asia Cup after a gap of 15 years. However, India’s most memorable conquest under Dhoni’s leadership came in 2011 as they ended their 28-year-long wait for an ODI World Cup trophy on home soil with the captain leading from the front with his unbeaten knock of 91* (79) in the final.

Dhoni gave up captaincy from all formats in 2017

The ‘man with the Midas touch’ also inspired a revamped Indian side to their second ICC Champions Trophy title in 2013 in England. After enjoying a golden period in the first seven years of his leadership, Dhoni finally gave up his captaincy in ODIs and T20Is in January 2017 after retiring from Tests earlier in December 2014.

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The 42-year-old is the third most successful skipper in both ODIs and T20Is with 110 wins from 200 matches in the 50-over format and 41 wins from 72 games in T20Is.