T20 World Cup: As Azzurris struggle, there’s a new Italy rising

NAI: Italy lives and breathes sport. Cycling, volleyball, water polo, motor racing and F1, now tennis, but it is Calcio or football that drives the tifosi. For the four-time world champions, however, the last decade has been one to forget, with even qualification to this summer’s World Cup hanging in the balance. While the Azzurris find themselves in the shadows, another team from Italy is quietly stepping into the light.“Hopefully, they might look at the success we’ve had in the last couple of months and take some inspiration from that,” Italy cricket team’s assistant coach Kevin O’Brien, famous for his marvelous knock for Ireland against England in the 2011 ODI World Cup, quipped about Gattuso’s team at the end of their pratice match against Canada here Monday. The T20 World Cup debutants overcame tough European qualifiers to be here but even though newcomers on the big stage, cricket in Italy is far from ‘new’. AC Milan, that storied football club, was originally founded as the Milan Football and Cricket Club. Famed striker Christian Vieri was a fine left-handed bat, modelled on idol Allan Border, during his growing-up years in Sydney, which has a sizeable Italian immigrant population. As for some members of the current squad, returning to Italy has been a wholesome ‘return’ to their roots. They had grown up hearing stories of Italian cricket from the 1980s. The two pairs of brothers — Benjamin and Harry Manenti, and Anthony and Justin Mosca — all born in Australia, have brought their Sydney-bred cricketing skills to the international stage. When the opportunity first came before the pandemic, it was Benjamin who received the initial call from the Italian Cricket Federation, and soon the rest followed. “I’ve always heard of Italian cricket because of my heritage, but I didn’t know at what scale it was,” said Anthony, “In recent years, cricket has started to pick up. When the opportunity came to play cricket for Italy, we obviously had our passports, and because of our heritage, we are able to represent them. The four of us (Menenti brothers and Justin) have grown up playing at the same Sydney cricket club and we know each other for almost 20 years now. We are as close mates as brothers, and our families will be cheering us on together from home.” And when asked about the cricket scene back home in Italy, Benjamin joked that since the Azzurri might miss out on the World Cup, they might only have one World Cup to cheer for this year and that they’d “better jump on the back of the cricket team”. “But yeah, it was prominent in the 1990s and 2000s and then it died off a bit,” admitted Benjamin. “But now it’s back again. They’re very excited about it, they’re very passionate. Same as everywhere in the world, cricket is a loved game by a lot of people. Hopefully, seeing Italy in a World Cup and on the biggest stage gets more people involved,” he added. The off-spinner added that the newly launched European T20 Premier League could give a major boost to cricket in Italy. “Obviously, the first benefactors will be Holland, Scotland and Ireland. But hopefully in the not-too-distant future there’s an Italy team as well. After a good World Cup, a few of our boys might get the opportunity to play as part of the Europeans this year. We’ve got a lot of good cricketers with experience, and teams will probably be keen to have them. This is an opportunity for them to get in, and for cricket in Italy to grow. Cricket in Europe is very popular, and I think it’s only getting bigger.” While Italy are on a mission to make their country embrace the sport, they consider themselves ‘underdogs’ and hope to become the second team that Indian fans, the co-hosts, cheer for.