Prince William and Kate Middleton: Royal couple play ball, win hearts

Children from various sections of society who had grown up listening to stories of princes and princesses were surprised and delighted to meet Prince William and Kate Middleton, the duke and duchess of Cambridge. The couple played a cricket match with children at the Oval Maidan, a recreational ground in South Mumbai. The move was praised by master blaster Sachin Tendulkar and Dilip Vengsarkar.

The royal couple is on three-day visit to India. It was their first public outing after paying tribute to the 26/11 victims at the Taj Hotel in the morning.

The couple interacted with representatives and children of three NGOs based in Mumbai — Magic Bus, Door Step School, and India’s Childline at the Oval Maidan. “They were eager to know how we manage such a mammoth operation, handling nine million calls,” Nishit Kumar of Childline told reporters.

“They were very sensitive to the problems faced by children. They did not show cursory interest but were genuinely interested in our work,” he said.

Bina Sheth Lashkari, a representative from Door Step School said that Prince William appreciated the NGO’s work. “The students met a prince and a princess for the first time in their lives,” she said. “Before this date, they had heard of princes and princesses only in fairy tales,” she said adding that the royal couple later autographed cricket bats for the NGOs.

William and Kate also tried their hands at playing cricket with the children. Mr Tendulkar played the role of a bowler and the Duke of Cambridge was at the other end with the bat. Duchess Kate took up fielding while Mr Vengsarkar was the wicket keeper.

After Mr Tendulkar’s inaugural delivery, it was the turn of a schoolgirl, who bowled to William. While he was successful batting the first delivery, he was caught on her second delivery. The duchess also faced a couple of slow deliveries.

Talking to reporters later, Mr Tendulkar was all praise for Prince William’s cricketing skills. Asked if the Prince could bat well, Mr Tendulkar said, “Of course! He ‘middled’ the ball very well. It was a wonderful experience. I am sure this event will be remembered for a long time,” he said.

Mr Tendulkar also spoke of his conversation with the Royal couple and his and Prince William’s passion for tennis.

Later, the duke and duchess also took an open-top bus tour of Mumbai with children from local charity organisation Apnalya.

Earlier in the day, the couple paid tribute to the victims of the 26/11 attacks at the Taj Hotel. They laid a wreath at the memorial and also spoke to the hotel staff who were present when the iconic hotel was attacked in November 2008.

Later in the evening, the duke and duchess of Cambridge attended a grand reception at hotel Taj Mahal Palace in south Mumbai.

Mr Tendulkar and wife Anjali, actors Shah Rukh Khan, Aishwarya Rai- Bachchan, Farhan Akhtar, singer Shankar Mahadevan, and designer Manish Malhotra were present.

Other celebrities who marked the event included actresses Aditi Rao Hydari, Alia Bhatt, Sonam Kapoor, Madhuri Dixit-Shriram Nene and Jacqueline Fernandez; actors Arjun Kapoor, Anil Kapoor; politician Priya Dutt; RBI governor Raghuram Rajan; director Karan Johar and model Sophie Choudry.

The royal couple will visit Delhi on Monday and begin their tour there by paying respects to India’s military contributions and honour Mahatma Gandhi.

They are on a seven-day tour of India and Bhutan, aimed at building strong bonds with the two countries.