Tendulkar denies blood-in-book report

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New Delhi, July 24: Sachin Tendulkar has denied a report that his blood will be used in a special pictorial "celebration" book on the career of the Indian cricket legend.

The mammoth book slated to appear in February is designed to be the "ultimate tribute to a living sporting legend" and "the definitive work on his life and career", publishers Kraken said.

The 37-year-old Tendulkar, who is in Sri Lanka playing a Test series, denied reports which appeared last week in British newspaper The Guardian that his blood would used on the book's signature page.

"There is no truth in my blood being part of the book," Tendulkar told The Times of India in comments published on Saturday.

Kraken chief executive Karl Fowler was quoted by the British broadsheet as saying 10 copies of the book would be printed using Tendulkar's blood.

Fowler, who had been earlier cited as saying Sachin's blood would be "mixed into the paper pulp so it's a red resin" told the Times of India that his comments had been "misunderstood."

"The Opus will not carry any blood as mentioned in the several articles/TV reports that have appeared over the past few days," The Times quoted Fowler as saying.

"I believe my thoughts on this matter have been misunderstood," the publisher added.

News reports say around 1,000 Opus copies, each numbered and personally signed, will go on sale at 2,000 to 3,000 dollars.

Each of the 852 pages are 50 centimetres (20 inches) square and edged in gold leaf. The publication weighs 37 kilograms (82 pounds) and contains around 1,500 images and more than 300,000 words.

Tendulkar is the first cricketer to be given the Opus treatment. Previous works have been published on Ferrari, Manchester United, Diego Maradona, Michael Jackson and the Burj Khalifa.