Anjali was there when Chappell offered captaincy: Tendulkar

Batting maestro Sachin Tendulkar has stuck to his guns on his criticism of Greg Chappell, claiming that his wife Anjali was present when the former India coach sought to topple Rahul Dravid by offering him the team's captaincy before the 2007 World Cup.
"Anjali was with me then, so need I say more?" said Tendulkar ahead of the launch of his much-awaited autobiography 'Playing It My Way' in which he has made this claim about Chappell.
Chappell, described by Tendulkar as a "ringmaster" who imposed ideas on players, has denied ever making such an offer to the now-retired batsman. But Tendulkar's teammates like VVS Laxman, Zaheer Khan and Harbhajan Singh have backed his claims.

Asked why he did not reveal this to Dravid, who has refused to comment on the matter, Tendulkar said for him, the issue had ended after refusing the offer.
"I didn't want to do all that (tell Dravid about it). As far as I was concerned, the matter was over right there because I didn't accept it, so I felt the battle was over. And I didn't want to create that atmosphere in the team because it was just the beginning of my stint with Greg," he said.
"I hadn't played a single game with Greg till then, I had undergone surgery and it was a few months before the World Cup and that is when he came to talk to me," he added.

The former batsman said he has no idea why Chappell chose to behave the way he did after taking charge as coach.

"I don't know. I wish I could understand what he was trying to do," he said.
He also said that initially he had told some of his teammates to give Greg some time to settle down in his job when they complained against him but later found out that things were only getting worse.
"I remember precisely the first two tours I missed and there was controversy in Sri Lanka and in Zimbabwe and I wasn't there on both those tours. We played the Challenger Trophy and while driving back from Mohali, Zaheer Khan, Ajit Agarkar, possibly Harbhajan Singh and a couple of guys were there," he recalled.