In the Clarence House gardens, the King was given a signed shirt by the team and posed for photographs, and he told them he had played cricket once – “but not very well”.
The players pinned an Afghan Women’s XI badge on his summer suit, with the King still sporting a tie and suit in the heatwave conditions.
He was interested in their stories about how they had left, the languages they spoke at home – and asked if they had faced protests as female cricketers in Afghanistan.
They said before the official clampdown on women’s cricket, there had not been much opposition, but told the King about their “terrifying journeys” and how they had escaped past Taliban checkpoints.
But the King faced a difficult bit of bowling in questions from the cricketers.
“Can I ask you a question?” said Latifi. “Can you say a posh word for me?”
When the King looked rather like he was facing a very tricky spin attack, she suggested: “A posh word like ‘lavatory’.”
The King thought about venturing a reply, but then laughed and said: “I’d need advance warning of that…”
Speaking afterwards, the cricketer said she was learning English and wanted to find out some posh words to use, suggesting “marvellous” as another example.
She had met the King though, which is fairly posh – but along with her team-mates, their bigger ambition is to be allowed to play a sport they love, and to do it for their own country.