King Charles asks after Akash Deep’s sister, wins players’ hearts

The Indian cricket teams' visit with King Charles III at St James’ Palace in London on 15 July, Tuesday, turned out to be rather more impressive than the customary handshakes with royalty. A senior BCCI functionary present at the meet-and-greet session revealed that the king had done his ‘homework’ well ahead of the meeting — which left the cricketers touched.

“He even inquired about Akash Deep’s sister’s illness. He had clearly done his research,’’ Rajeev Shukla, the BCCI vice president, said in an interview. The pace bowler’s sister has battled cancer, a fight the king himself is intimately familiar with.

He also consoled Mohammed Siraj as the latter broke down over being the last batter to fall during India’s chase at the Lord’s cricket grounds on Monday, 14 July, said Shukla, who is set to take over as interim BCCI president this month as current incumbent Roger Binny crosses the age cap of 70 years.

Akash Deep, who rocked England with a 10-wicket haul in Jasprit Bumrah’s absence at Edgbaston, had revealed in a chat with broadcasters that he was dedicating his success to his sister Akhan Jyoti Singh back home — fighting a stage III cancer.

“It was a historic occasion. Both our men and women’s teams were invited by King Charles and met him at the Palace. The players were very happy because he asked about personal details of each one of them,’’ Shukla said.

Shukla admitted to being taken aback when King Charles asked about late Arun Jaitley, a senior BCCI functionary and Union minister. “He asked Saikia ji [BCCI secretary Devajit Saikia] and me whether Arun Jaitley was my friend. When I told him he had passed away, the King expressed his condolences and asked me to convey them to his family,’’ Shukla added.

Of Siraj, the king remarked that his dismissal was ‘unfortunate’ — the pace bowler played a Sohaib Bashir delivery onto his stumps. “Even he noticed this fact...! If we had another regular batter on the field, then we could have won easily. Our team has proven that our experiment is well done (to send a young team), as part of which we have sent a new team because we are looking forward to the future. The team has proven itself to be a fighter unit,” Shukla said.

Earlier, Shubman Gill said: “It was amazing to meet King Charles III and he was very kind and generous to call us. We had some really good conversations. King Charles III told us that the way our last batsman got out in the previous Test match was quite unfortunate, the ball rolling on [to] the stumps.”