New Delhi, Apr 16: Batting maestro Sachin Tendulkar today pulled out of the tomorrow's Olympic Torch relay here citing groin injury as the reason.

''Sachin has been advised to take rest by Mumbai Indians' team physio A Ijaz,'' sources close to the Indian remier League (IPL) revealed.

However, Indian Olympic Association (IOA) has denied receiving any official confirmation from the master blaster.

The cricket great was earlier said to be participating the relay as per the Indian Olympics Association chief Suresh Kalmadi. When he was contacted about Tendulkar`s pulling out of the relay, he said, "I have not received any news from Sachin, he had told me that he would be coming when I talked to him on Tuesday morning. There are lots of sportspersons coming, it won`t be a problem.

Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dixit announced that there would be no schoolchildren present during the relay due to security reasons.

Earlier on Tuesday, Bollywood star Soha Ali Khan had joined the list of celebrities who have decided not to run the torch relay. Top cop Kiran Bedi, soccer star Baichung Bhutia are other prominent personalities who have pulled out of the relay.

Bhutia had openly expressed his pro-Tibetan sentiment as the reason for his pull out. Kiran Bedi had said that too much security was stiffling for her while Soha has cited personal reason behind the pull out.

The torch-relay is taking place in the wake of worldwide protests by Tibetans against the crackdown in Lhasa. The relay is on Wednesday touring Pakistan from where it will arrive in New Delhi amid high security. More than a hundred Tibetan protesters were detained on Tuesday by the police to prevent any disruption in the Olympic torch relay.