William joins cricket stars on The Mall to mark Mumbai hosting Earthshot Prize

The Prince of Wales played cricket on The Mall with England and India stars to celebrate Mumbai hosting his Earthshot Prize.

William brought traffic to a stop on the famous London thoroughfare for the game that saw England captain Joe Root and West Indies great Brian Lara play alongside grassroots cricketers. Also on the impromptu pitch were ex-India cricket captains Ajinkya Rahane and Sourav Ganguly. The Earthshot Prize aims to discover, reward and finance ideas to help “repair” the planet and awards £1 million to winners in five categories, with Mumbai staging this year’s ceremony next month. The future king first tried bowling at Lara, with slow medium deliveries pushed gently away, before taking the bat from the former West Indies captain, who holds the record for the highest first class cricket score of 501 not out. William swung and missed at a number of deliveries from Harry Brook, England’s white ball captain, and Ganguly before connecting with one ball and sending it over the heads of players from the internet sensation Backyard Cricket, which promotes the sport at the grassroots level. Lara praised the prince and said he would be in his starting 11, adding: “Well, I think he underrates himself first of all because you know he’s a big football fan, as we all know. “I think his bowling needs a lot of work, but his batting across the line, I think he’d just be my sort of number six or number seven batter, the guy that comes in at the end, and if he hits a couple of boundaries, he hits a couple of boundaries.” Among the cricketing greats at the event was ex-England bowler Sir Jimmy Anderson, England’s highest wicket-taker in Test cricket with more than 700 wickets. From the world of broadcasting was BBC Radio 1 breakfast presenter Greg James, co-host of the popular cricket podcast Tailenders alongside Sir Jimmy and musician Felix White. Joe Root said about the experience of playing in The Mall: “It was a bit different, it was a challenging wicket. “But it was a great opportunity, a huge privilege to get the chance to do it and there are some wonderful backdrops in cricket but none quite like this.” William’s Earthshot project is halfway through its decades-long cycle and has already been staged in London, Singapore, Cape Town, Boston and Rio de Janeiro. He has managed to attract a host of stars to his cause, from Hollywood stars Leonardo DiCaprio, Matthew McConaughey and Cate Blanchett to broadcaster and naturalist Sir David Attenborough and former prime minister of New Zealand Jacinda Ardern. Awards are presented in five categories, or Earthshots – Protect and restore nature; Clean our air, Revive our oceans; Build a waste-free world; and Fix our climate. Among the finalists are Orsted, the Danish renewable energy company behind some of the world’s largest offshore wind projects, Mahindra Last Mile Mobility which produces electric tuk-tuks in India, and Yellowstone to Yukon, which is reconnecting a vast mountain landscape across Canada and the US so wildlife can once again move freely.

Published: 13/10/2026 by Radio NewsHub