Reacting angrily to a media report suggesting ego clashes between them, Sourav Ganguly and Sachin Tendulkar on Saturday night sought an apology and also threatened to take legal action if such "misleading" reports continue to be published.

In a joint statement, the duo rubbished the media report, pertaining to Ganguly calling Tendulkar a "tourist" and the latter conveying to Kiran More, the chairman of the selection committee, his unwillingness to play under the Kolkata batsman and thereby pushing Rahul Dravid for captaincy.

"We state that the story of Sourav calling Sachin a tourist and Sachin refusing to play under Sourav and thereby pushing Dravid is completely untrue," the statement said.

"More conveying to his colleagues that Sachin did not want to play under Sourav is completely false and misleading," it added.

The two players said they expect an apology on behalf of the newspaper "as such made up, false stories are harmful for Indian cricket".

"If this is not rectified legal action will have to be taken in future," they said.