MUMBAI, Feb 2(TOI): On the cricket field, there are very few deliveries that can get past master-blaster Sachin Tendulkar's defence. Off the field, however, things can be different, as Tendulkar learnt to his dismay on Saturday.

Sachin and his brother Nitin collected a gold-plated disc with a coin on behalf of their mother during a programme to release a CD of his late father's poems. But the memento later went missing from Bandra's Rang Sharda auditorium, right from under the Tendulkar brothers' noses.

The organizers later said the value of the memento should not be measured in terms of its monetary value. "A lot of sentiment went into the programme to release the CD of his father Ramesh Tendulkar's poems. And immediately after the CD was released came the release of a book containing poems penned by his brother," an organizer said. "Sachin's mother could not attend the programme because of health reasons and that's why Nitin collected it on her behalf. Just imagine the embarrassment of it all."

The memento, weighing 80 gram, was made partly of gold and was worth Rs 2 lakh, organizers said.

"But it's not the financial value we are bothered about. Instead, it's the sentimental value of the memento that has left us despondent. We appeal to the person who might have found it later to return it as soon as possible," the organizer said, carefully avoiding the "theft" tag.

The FIR that was lodged at Bandra police station, however, was about a case of theft.