{"id":927017,"date":"2026-10-13T20:22:14","date_gmt":"2026-10-13T20:22:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/927017\/"},"modified":"2026-10-13T20:22:14","modified_gmt":"2026-10-13T20:22:14","slug":"prince-william-plays-cricket-outside-buckingham-palace-on-the-mall-for-earthshot-prize-mumbai","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/927017\/","title":{"rendered":"Prince William plays cricket outside Buckingham Palace on The Mall for Earthshot Prize Mumbai"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Prince of Wales<\/a> has brought traffic to a standstill along London\u2019s most iconic road to play a game of backyard cricket outside of Buckingham Palace.<\/p>\n

The prince, 44, joined players from the England and India teams to mark the countdown to his Earthshot Prize awards ceremony<\/a>, to be held in Mumbai next month.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The Prince of Wales played a game of backyard cricket outside Buckingham Palace on Tuesday to promote his Earthshot Prize awards, which are heading to Mumbai in November.\u00a0AP Photo\/Alastair Grant<\/p>\n

The friendly match took place on The Mall outside the palace, a roadway usually closed for the grandest of royal affairs such as Trooping the Colour<\/a> \u2212 the king\u2019s birthday parade \u2212 and state occasions.<\/p>\n

English star Joe Root said of the location: \u201cThere are some wonderful backdrops in cricket but none quite like Buckingham Palace\u201d.<\/p>\n

Prince William took off his jacket to play for around 10 minutes and Root said of his skills: \u201cHis batting was pretty good to be fair. I think he\u2019s definitely a batter rather than a bowler, but he played some lovely shots. There\u2019s a lot to work with there.\u201d<\/p>\n

West Indies legend Brian Lara added: \u201cHe underrates himself, he\u2019s a big football fan, he said he doesn\u2019t know much about cricket. His bowling needs a lot of work but his batting? I\u2019d put him as the number six or number seven batter, definitely in the starting 11.\u201d<\/p>\n

William was gifted a cricket shirt for Princess Charlotte<\/a>, who plays on a team at Lambrook school in Windsor.<\/p>\n

After the game, Prince William stopped to meet some of the large crowds who had gathered to watch the unusual spectacle, shaking hands and posing for selfies.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe do this a lot now,\u201d the prince was heard saying as he took a photo with someone\u2019s phone. Royals have relaxed their rules around selfies in recent years after previously declining them.<\/p>\n

Former India captain Sourav Ganguly said of the prince: \u201cHe was so friendly with everyone, simple and down to earth. India will welcome him, cordially. He\u2019s such a lovely natured person, smiling, shaking hands with everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The prince was praised for his batting skills over his bowling.\u00a0AP Photo\/Alastair Grant<\/p>\n

The game \u2212 called Cricket on The Mall \u2212 was organised by YouTube stars the Backyard Cricket Boys.<\/p>\n

It was held to \u201ccelebrate the deep and enduring ties\u201d between Britain and India, and \u201cour shared passion for cricket\u201d, Kensington Palace said.<\/p>\n

Prince William\u2019s Earthshot Prize awards will take place in India in November and will be the sixth installation of his landmark climate event.<\/p>\n

India is home to more Earthshot prize-winners and finalists than any other country and the event in Mumbai has been promoted as its \u201cbiggest awards yet\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Prince William played on The Mall for about 10 minutes, drawing interest from tourists walking past.\u00a0Chris Jackson\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

The Princess of Wales<\/a> is expected to join her husband for the short visit to India, which would mark her return to the ceremony<\/a> for the first time since December 2022.<\/p>\n

Catherine has remained at home with their three children Prince George<\/a>, 13, Princess Charlotte<\/a>, 11, and Prince Louis<\/a>, eight, for the last four ceremonies, choosing to be there for exams and other family-centric reasons. Catherine\u2019s cancer diagnosis in 2024<\/a>, and her round of preventative chemotherapy, also forced her to miss the awards.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Prince William later shook hands with spectators and posed for selfies.\u00a0Chris Jackson\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

It would also mark her and Prince William\u2019s first joint overseas visit in almost four years.<\/p>\n

In May, the princess carried out her first overseas visit since her cancer diagnosis<\/a>. The two-day tour of northern Italy, in support of her work into early childhood<\/a>, was seen as a major milestone in Catherine\u2019s recovery.<\/p>\n

Prince William founded the prize in 2020<\/a>\u00a0to find solutions to help repair the plant, with the five winning finalists given the award money to further their ideas.<\/p>\n

The Earthshot Prize honours innovation in environmental protection and 15 finalists are competing for the opportunity to win \u00a31m each in five categories.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Prince of Wales has brought traffic to a standstill along London\u2019s most iconic road to play a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":927018,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[564],"tags":[64,63,740,85],"class_list":["post-927017","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cricket","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-cricket","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/927017","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=927017"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/927017\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/927018"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=927017"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=927017"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=927017"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}