Sports

British Royals bat in Mumbai for charity

British Royals bat in Mumbai for charity

By REUTERS

Former Indian cricketers Sachin Tendulkar (right) and Dilip Vengsarkar look on as Catherine, Duchess of Cambridge plays a cricket match with nIndian children, who are beneficiaries of the NGOs at the Oval Maidan, in Mumbai on Sunday. Photo: AFP

Mumbai, April 10 Britain’s Duke and Duchess of Cambridge played a charity cricket match with underprivileged children in Mumbai on Sunday, the first day of a week-long tour of India that will include a trip to the isolated Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan. Prince William and his wife Kate Middleton flew into India’s financial capital and met children from Magic Bus, Childline and Doorstep — three non-governmental organisations that work with children. They took an open-top bus tour and played a cricket match with a team from a local cricket academy and kids backed by the three charities. Kate, in sunglasses and a red, white and blue summer dress, faced a few deliveries from Indian cricket legend Sachin Tendulkar. She struck one ball only to be caught out, leading to a lively exchange between William and the fielders. William and Kate’s tour takes in New Delhi, where they will lunch with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, a wildlife park in Assam famed for its one-horned rhinos, and Bhutan. Their tour ends back in India next Saturday at the Taj Mahal, revisiting the scene of a solo — and much photographed — visit in 1992 by William’s mother, the late Princess Diana, to the monument to love.