England cricket stars make Wimbledon visit

England cricket stars make Wimbledon visit

England's cricketers took time out of their World Cup campaign to be among the stars in the Royal Box on day six at Wimbledon.

The first Saturday of the Championships is renowned for attracting the very best in the sporting world to Centre Court, where the likes of Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer will perform.

Joe Root has scored 500 runs at the World Cup
Joe Root has scored 500 runs at the World Cup (Mike Egerton/PA)

And skipper Eoin Morgan, opener Jonny Bairstow, batsman Joe Root and paceman Tom Curran took the opportunity to swap the cricket field for a tennis arena ahead of their last-four clash next week.

The quartet, announced during the ceremony by Sue Barker, were joined by Test bowlers James Anderson, Stuart Broad and Sam Curran as well as former batsman Andrew Strauss.

Tennis greats Billie Jean King, Martina Navratilova and Ann Jones were all present while Rod Laver was handed a replica Wimbledon's men's singles trophy as part of a year-long celebration of his calendar grand slam in 1969, which sent the crowd into raptures.

Two England coaches, football's Gareth Southgate and rugby union's Eddie Jones, were also in attendance along with Tottenham midfielder Eric Dier.

England manager Gareth Southgate was on centre Court
England manager Gareth Southgate was on Centre Court (Mike Egerton/PA)

Jones will be taking England to the World Cup later this year and some of his players were also visiting SW19, including Dylan Hartley, Maro Itoje and Jonny May.

Olympians Sir Ben Ainslie, Sir Mo Farah and Sir Chris Hoy, netball's Ama Agbeze, golfers Matt Fitzpatrick and Laura Davies plus boxers David Haye and Carl Froch also took their seats in the Royal Box.

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