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.

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