Tendulkar visits Indian Naval ship docked in East London

Around a thousand of Indians living in the UK take tour of the ship on Sunday

Rupanjana Dutta Monday 08th May 2017 10:40 EDT
 
 

Cricketer Sachin Tendulkar has been spotted in London, ahead of his film's release. The eagerly awaited sports film, Sachin: A Billion Dreams, which chronicles cricketing legend Sachin Tendulkar’s journey from a young boy to one of the most celebrated sportsmen of all time, will be releasing in the UK on 26th May 2017. 

Directed by award-winning filmmaker, James Erskine, starring Sachin himself, this stunning film allows fans to walk into the Master Blaster’s life and also feature India's cricketing legends M.S. Dhoni and Virender Sehwag.

Speaking about the film, Sachin Tendulkar said, “This film has helped me relive the important moments of my life through its making. I remain a private person but realised that there is much I have not revealed or spoken about to those who have been instrumental to my life and career, especially the fans. I hope the film will be yet another avenue for fans who have showered their love and blessings on me to cherish the journey that we undertook together for over 24 years.”

On Saturday 6 May, he met the crème de la crème of the Indian community and diehard cricket fans at the Surrey County Cricket Club in South London.

On Sunday 7 May Sachin with his wife Dr Anjali made their way to the Indian Naval ship INS Tarkash, docked at Canary Wharf in London for 3 days, where he met ship's Captain Rituraj Sahu and the Acting High Commissioner of India to UK, Dinesh Patnaik. INS Tarkash, a state-of-the art stealth ship, is in the UK for naval exercises and to mark UK India Year of Culture 2017 and almost a thousand of Indian people from various parts of the UK, including women and children gathered to cheer for him.
They danced to the patriotic music played at the occasion and waved their Indian and British flags, standing at the gallery behind Lyca Mobile's Canary Wharf office. They were later given a tour of the ship in batches. Among many Indian organisations visiting were Indian Ladies in the UK (ILUK)- a group that has almost 20,000 Indian women from the UK as their member and another group called Indians in the UK- who met the cricketer on board.

"It is a very historic moment. This is the first time an Indian stealth frigate has docked at Canary Wharf in London. We wanted Indians living in the UK to come and be part of this historic event,” Ambassador Patnaik told the newspaper.

The Captain of the ship described how the ship has sailed from Mumbai on 5 April 2017, making the first long hault at Crete, Greece and then reaching UK on Sunday. Packed with a high density of weapons and sensors and manned by a highly motivated crew of 320 personel, she is one of the most potent platforms of Indian Navy. This is the ship's first trip to the UK with this crew.

Photo courtesy: Raj D Bakrania, PrMediapix


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