{"id":529871,"date":"2026-03-10T00:10:21","date_gmt":"2026-03-10T00:10:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/529871\/"},"modified":"2026-03-10T00:10:21","modified_gmt":"2026-03-10T00:10:21","slug":"king-charles-jokes-with-cricket-legend-on-how-playing-the-sport-in-caribbean-nearly-killed-him","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/529871\/","title":{"rendered":"King Charles jokes with cricket legend on how playing the sport in Caribbean \u2018nearly killed\u2019 him"},"content":{"rendered":"

King Charles<\/a> shared a light-hearted moment about his Royal Navy<\/a> days, quipping that playing cricket across the Caribbean islands “nearly killed\u201d him.<\/p>\n

The monarch’s jest came as he was presented with a signed cricket<\/a> bat by legendary sportsman Sir Viv Richards<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The former West Indies captain handed over the gift at the annual Commonwealth Day reception held at St James’s Palace.<\/p>\n

The event saw the King and Queen engage with ministers and dignitaries representing the 56 Commonwealth nations.<\/p>\n

Adorned with the emblems of the West Indies cricket team, the bat also featured a reference to the 2026 biennial Commonwealth meeting, which is scheduled to take place in Antigua and Barbuda during the first week of November.<\/p>\n

Presenting Charles with the bat, Sir Viv said: \u201cAs you know, we\u2019re hosting the 56 nations in our region, so this is just a little gift to you.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Ex-<\/p>\n

Ex- West Indies captain Sir Viv Richards met the King and Queen on Monday (Aaron Chown\/PA)<\/p>\n

Asked by the King if it was a bat the former cricketer had used, Sir Viv laughed and replied that this one was \u201cfor show\u201d.<\/p>\n

When Camilla remarked on the bat\u2019s inscription, \u201cmaster blaster\u201d, the highly revered batsman joked: \u201cThat\u2019s what I\u2019m locally called.\u201d<\/p>\n

The King told Sir Viv the gift reminded him of his time in the Royal Navy, in which he served from 1971-76, joking: \u201cIt reminds me of my attempts when I was in the Navy.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were playing cricket in each of those islands\u2026 it nearly killed me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Charles\u2019s father, the late Duke of Edinburgh, was an avid cricket fan and, like his son, enjoyed playing the sport while serving in the Navy.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

A cricket bat gifted to the King and Queen by retired Antiguan cricketer Sir Viv Richards (Aaron Chown\/PA)<\/p>\n

Accompanied by the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester, the King and Queen greeted foreign as well as UK Commonwealth representatives, including Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper and shadow foreign secretary Dame Priti Patel.<\/p>\n

Earlier on Monday, Charles and Camilla attended the annual Commonwealth Day service at Westminster Abbey, where Charles, as head of the Commonwealth, shared a message to its members.<\/p>\n

Describing the family of nations as a \u201cforce for good\u201d, the King spoke of its \u201cenduring spirit\u201d in the face of \u201cconflict, climate change and rapid transformation\u201d.<\/p>\n

A large anti-monarchy protest took place opposite the abbey, with demonstrators holding \u201cNot My King\u201d and \u201cAbolish The Monarchy\u201d banners.<\/p>\n

It comes amid calls to remove Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor from the line of succession, a suggestion that has received backing from leaders of several Commonwealth nations, including Australia, Canada and New Zealand, all of which would need to agree if an Act of Parliament were to go ahead.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"King Charles shared a light-hearted moment about his Royal Navy days, quipping that playing cricket across the Caribbean…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":529872,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[564],"tags":[64,63,258864,263252,740,18756,263254,2546,2545,263255,263251,85,263253,47539],"class_list":["post-529871","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cricket","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-commonwealth-day","tag-commonwealth-nations","tag-cricket","tag-cricket-bat","tag-king-and-queen","tag-king-charles","tag-royal-navy","tag-sir-viv","tag-sir-viv-richards","tag-sports","tag-the-king","tag-west-indies-cricket-team"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/529871","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=529871"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/529871\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/529872"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=529871"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=529871"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=529871"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}