The Italy national cricket team is the team that represents the country of Italy in international cricket matches. They have been an associate member of the International Cricket Council since 1995, having previously been an affiliate member since 1984. The Italian national cricket team is administered by the Federazione Cricket Italiana (Italian Cricket Federation).
They are currently ranked 27th in the world by the ICC, and are ranked fifth amongst European non-Test teams. They are in Division Four of the World Cricket League and Division One of the European Championship.
The earliest mention of cricket in Italy is of a match played by Admiral Nelson's sailors in Naples in 1793. Around the end of the 19th century, several combined cricket and football clubs formed, including the world famous A.C. Milan, which was originally the Milan Cricket and Football Club and the first Italian football team Genoa Cricket and Football Club, which was originally the Genoa Cricket & Athletic Club. But these clubs soon forgot about cricket and concentrated on football. Cricket started to be revived after the Second World War.
The "Federazione Cricket Italiana" (Italian Cricket Federation) was formed in 1980, and they became an affiliate member of the ICC in 1984, and were promoted to associate member in 1995.
In 1996, Italy took part in the first European Championship in Denmark, finishing seventh after beating Israel in a play-off. They took part in the ICC Trophy for the first time in the 1997 tournament and performed poorly, finishing joint last out of the 22 participants. They finished fifth in the following years European Championship.
In 1999, Italy took part in a quadrangular tournament in Gibraltar also featuring France and Israel. They won the tournament, beating the hosts in the final. They finished fifth in Division One of the European Championship the following year and were due to participate in the 2001 ICC Trophy, but pulled out at the last minute due to a dispute over the eligibility of four players.
The 2002 European Championship saw Italy finish sixth in Division One, relegating them to Division Two for 2004, which they promptly won. This qualified them for the repêchage tournament for the 2005 ICC Trophy in early 2005 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. They finished seventh in that tournament after beating Zambia in a play-off.
They took part in Division One of the European Championship in 2006, finishing fifth. In May/June 2007, they travelled to Darwin, Australia to take part in Division Three of the World Cricket League. They finished seventh after beating Fiji in a play-off, and will play in Division Four of the World Cricket League in 2008.
In addition to playing in Division Four of the World Cricket League in 2008 against Fiji, Hong Kong, Tanzania Italy will also participate in Division One of the European Championship in Dublin, playing against Denmark, Ireland, the Netherlands, Norway and Scotland.
Current Italian Cricket Squad:
Joe Scuderi(captain), Luis Di Giglio, Din Alaud, Alessandro Bonora, Munasinghe Gayshan, Dylan Sarnelli, Hemantha Jayasena, Samantha Ketipe, Thushara Kurukulasuriya, Luca Poli, Andy Northcote, Nicholas Northcote, Kelum Perera and Peter Petricola.
Links to more information on Italian Cricket:
*Acknowledgements to Wikipedia.org and owners of pictures and videos used.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment