LAHORE, Jan 13: India’s cricket team met patients and handed out sweets at former Pakistan captain Imran Khan’s cancer hospital on the Muslim festival of Eidul Azha on Wednesday.

Led by their skipper Rahul Dravid, the tourists stayed at the Shaukat Khanum Memorial Hospital for an hour.

“It was a great gesture from the Indian team and a great boost for my hospital, staff and, above all, to the patients of the hospital,” Imran told reporters.

Imran named the hospital after his mother, who died of cancer in the late 1980s.

“When India came to Pakistan in 1989 we launched this hospital and it is an auspicious occasion that they have revisited it,” said Imran, who played 82 Tests for Pakistan until his retirement in 1992 and is now a politician.

“Sachin Tendulkar was a 15-year-old boy then, and now he is an icon and some of the young patients adore him and were thrilled to see him among them.”

Seven-year-old Osama Shahzad, who is suffering from leukaemia, said he was overjoyed after meeting the Indian batting star.

“I am thrilled. Tendulkar is my hero and I was waiting for him since I got to know that the Indian team were coming,” Shahzad said.

The hospital won the World Health Organisation award for excellence in 2004 and is the biggest charitable organisation in Pakistan, serving 500 patients a year.—AFP