Sachin opens 'India Room'

Sachin Tendulkar on Monday inaugurated the 'India Room' in the new stand at The Oval cricket stadium in London.

Tendulkar, who was here to also offer his support to the Twenty20 tsunami fundraiser between Asia XI and International XI, was thrilled to open the new room at the refurbished stand.

"It is great honour. Surrey is my favourite ground where I played my hundredth Test. It was a special moment for me," Tendulkar said.

Leading UK based industrialists raised 500,000 pounds (approx Rs four crore) for the 'India Room'. Prominent contributors included Sir Gulam Noon of Noon products, G P Hinduja of the Hinduja Foundation, Kartar Lalvani, Chief of Vita Biotics Ltd, Lord Bagri and Nadeem Ahmed, Chief of Global Tea and Commodities.

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Offering the support of cricketers to all fund raising activities to help tsunami victims, Tendulkar said, "From the cricketing fraternity whatever you are doing for tsunami victims is very, very special. All the cricketers are with you. Hopefully I will get to play a part in future fundraisers."

Tendulkar, who was to feature in both the Lord's match held on June 14 and today's match at The Oval, had to pull out of the matches after undergoing an elbow surgery in London.

Talking about the surgery, Tendulkar told PTI: "I am making steady progress. Now I am leaving for Mumbai tomorrow."