(COLOMBO, LANKAPUVATH) –Around Christmas last year, seven-year-old Australian cricket super-fan Archie Schiller was lying in a hospital bed, breathing through a tube as he recovered from his third heart surgery.
But this year the seven-year-old was able to forget, just briefly, the troubles of his congenital heart disease.
On Wednesday, he strode onto the Melbourne Cricket Ground as honorary co-captain of the Australian cricket team as they took on India.
He was captain for the Boxing Day Test – his country’s biggest cricket match of the year.
Thousands of spectators watched as the little boy shook hands with the Indian captain at the coin toss, signalling the start of the match.
“He was just on top of the world to be out there with the team, I’ve never seen him smile so much,” his mother Sarah Schiller told the BBC.
