Football-mad Italy now gets a slice of cricket

A group of British expatriates set up the Genoa Cricket and Athletic Club in the Italian port in 1893, and it was only when English doctor James Richardson Spensley joined a few years later that soccer was added to the programme. Spensley became known as one of the fathers of Italian football and the sport swept the nation, leaving Cricket with little recognition except for its continued presence in the full name of top-flight soccer side Genoa Cricket and Football Club.

Now, a new breed of expatriates in Italy — from India, Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Bangladesh — are putting the game back in the limelight. The lucrative new Indian Premier League found its way on to Italian satellite television in June and famed newspaper Gazzetta dello Sport has carried stories about the game. “There are loads of people playing cricket in the streets,” the Italian cricket federation's president Simone Gambino said.

Associate member

Around 400,000 people from South Asia live in Italy and the federation estimates that further arrivals, despite the government's crackdown on illegal immigration, could lead to 1,000 new clubs. The national team, made up largely of players from Asian, Australian and South African backgrounds, hope one day to qualify for the World Cup.

They beat the Netherlands, who have played in three World Cups, in the ICC’s European Division One championship in Ireland in July. "Thirty years looks to be about right for us to reach the World Cup. We are about 27th in world rankings and all it takes is for the World Cup to expand and for us to improve a bit," Gambino added. Italy are an associate ICC member, along with nations such as Ireland and Scotland, who have played in World Cups.

Gambino is irked by the fact that Zimbabwe remain full members despite being out of international cricket because of political crisis. "Ireland and Scotland are now definitely better than Zimbabwe. If Zimbabwe played Italy in a five-match series, we would certainly win one game, yet they are full members," he said.

Long wait for success

The lack of funding is most noticeable when it comes to pitches. Cricket, even the one-day version, takes up a lot of time as well as space. The growing number of cricket teams often have to share with baseball sides or grab whatever piece of land they can.

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