Prince William’s latest Earthshot appearance involved stopping traffic on The Mall, picking up a cricket bat and trying his luck against some of the biggest names in the sport.

The Prince of Wales joined Joe Root, Brian Lara, Ajinkya Rahane and Sourav Ganguly on October 13 for a street cricket game outside Buckingham Palace. Kensington Palace recorded the appearance as an official Earthshot Prize engagement ahead of this year’s awards in Mumbai, India, next month.  

So yes, there actually was a connection between cricket and Earthshot, although it was not immediately obvious from the photographs. Organisers used the match to promote Mumbai as this year’s host city, with cricket serving as a cultural link between Britain and India. The Earthshot Prize itself will award £1 million each to five environmental solutions.  

Still, visually, it was difficult to escape the slightly surreal spectacle of Britain’s future king playing cricket in business-casual trousers in the middle of The Mall while traffic waited. And his cricketing ability did not exactly steal the show.

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ITV reports that William missed several deliveries before eventually connecting with one, while Brian Lara joked that his bowling “needs a lot of work.”  

The Daily Express found the whole thing charming enough to squeeze him onto Wednesday’s front page, alongside the caption: “Watch out for those palace windows, sir!” But another clip from the event gives the carefully staged royal moment a slightly different atmosphere.

The video shows William walking along The Mall with security and staff nearby after the cricket activation. What it does not show is much of a crowd. Rows of barriers line the route, but along this particular stretch there appear to be very few members of the public actually standing behind them.

Perhaps the crowd-control barriers did not have much crowd to control at that moment, but they certainly helped create the visual language of a major public event.

That contrast is worth noting because royal coverage can present these appearances as moments of spontaneous public excitement. The photographs may show the future king playing cricket outside Buckingham Palace with sporting legends, but the wider scene can sometimes look rather more managed than the finished images suggest.

The funny face William later made while greeting well-wishers had nothing to do with the cricket joke. According to People, William was recreating Aston Villa captain John McGinn’s familiar “goggles” celebration while chatting with another Villa supporter. He also stopped for selfies and spoke with people gathered outside Buckingham Palace.

There is nothing wrong with using sport to draw attention to a charitable initiative, and the cricket match did have an identifiable purpose: promoting Earthshot’s upcoming awards in Mumbai.

But William has made a noticeable run of public appearances recently, and this one comes just days after Kate Middleton and Princess Charlotte’s heavily covered ride on the Elizabeth Line. The amount of emphasis now being placed on these informal, relatable royal moments is difficult to miss.

Whether watching the Prince of Wales swing at a cricket ball, surrounded by barriers that, at least in one video, had very few people behind them, made anyone think more deeply about climate innovation is another question entirely.

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