'Miracolo': Football-mad Italy make cricket World Cup debut

Italy have won the football World Cup four times, but when it comes to cricket they are minnows making a historic debut among the game’s elite.

The Italians play Scotland in the T20 World Cup at Kolkata’s famous Eden Gardens on Monday and will be the lowest-ranked team in the competition.

“How did we get to the World Cup? In Italy we say ‘miracolo Italiano’, an ‘Italian miracle’,” said Riccardo Maggio, development officer with the Italian Cricket Federation.

Maggio has spent a lifetime helping cricket grow on the fringes of the football-obsessed nation.

“We’re coming to the World Cup, and believe me, we’re not coming just once for appearance,” he said.

“Passion and the Italian way of doing things make us the miracle that we are.”

Italy beat Scotland in the qualifiers and facing them again on Monday would be a “huge honour”, said skipper Wayne Madsen.

“Captaining Italy is not something I take lightly,” the South Africa-born Madsen, 42, who has played English county cricket, told AFP.

Italy are in Group C and also face England, the West Indies and Nepal.

‘I’m going to cry’

The challenge is huge, but Maggio has faith.

The 56-year-old played for Italy in a six-wicket victory over an England Cricket Board XI in 1998, a match that the ICC said “shocked” cricket.

“I was on the field that day and we had to play out of our skins,” he said, voice trembling.

“And now we’re playing England at the World Cup. I’m sorry, but I’m going to cry.”

Italy’s federation says it has about 1,800 players and around 100 clubs.

“Football will always be huge in Italy, that’s just the reality,” Madsen said, adding that playing in the World Cup will be a “massive” boost.

“When people see Italy competing on a global stage, it sparks interest and belief,” he said.

Nelson, Genoa and AC Milan

Cricket actually has a long history in Italy.

In 1793, English naval hero Horatio Nelson “organised the first-ever recorded game in Naples”, according to the ICC, most likely to keep his sailors out of trouble while in port.

An Italian English-born colonel, Francis Maceroni, then took the game to Naples in the 1810s.

“The first difficulty was to get bats and balls. I set to work and made both with my own hands,” Maceroni wrote in his memoir.

The Genoa Cricket and Athletic Club was founded in 1893 at the British consulate, aiming to play cricket in summer and football in winter.

It became the country’s oldest football club, with Genoa winning the Italian Serie A championship nine times.

“It’s still called ‘Genoa Cricket and Football Club’,” Maggio noted.

AC Milan, according to its club history, was founded as the “Milan Football and Cricket Club” in 1899.

Diverse squad

Players and fans in Italian cricket come from around the world.

“We have Italians from Australia, Italians from South Africa, the Asian-Italian community, Italians from Italy,” Maggio said.

Madsen will complete an unusual World Cup double on Monday — playing in two different sports for two separate countries.

He played at the field hockey World Cup for his native South Africa, but holds an Italian passport now through his ancestry.

Former South Africa T20 international JJ Smuts, who is now Italian through marriage, is also in the squad.

“A lot of our players have deep Italian roots and others have found their connection to Italy through life and opportunity,” Madsen said.

“What matters most isn’t where you were born, but how much it means to you to wear this badge.”