Crishan Kalugamage munched on the Prosciutto pizza served live by a chef from Fabbrica restaurant and, with a warm smile, responded: “8/10”. The Sri Lankan in the Italian squad for the ongoing ICC Men’s T20 World Cup is training to be a pizza chef in Italy and was asked to rate the pizza on his plate by t2.
The Italian cricket team, formed almost entirely of players born outside the country, was invited to a reception on the lawns of the Italian consulate general recently. “Five of our players stay in Italy,” said media manager Rakbir Hasan, who shifted to Italy in 2005 from Bangladesh.
Among them is Kalugamage. “My Italian is better than my Sri Lankan now,” said the leg spinner, who played school cricket in Marawila town till ethnic conflicts forced his family to migrate to Italy when he was 16. The player of the match in the World Cup fixture against Nepal, who turned his arm over for a four-over spell yielding a miserly 18 runs for a three-wicket haul, was in athletics for the first five years till Lucca, the Tuscan town he stays in, formed a cricket team. Currently he works at a local restaurant and travels by train on Sundays to play for his club, Roma.
Many of the other players stay in Australia, where their forefathers had migrated from Italy. Take team manager Peter Di Venuto, the team manager. “My family is from Friuli, in north Italy. My grandparents came out in search of a new life after the region was damaged in World War II. My whole family is involved in cricket. This opportunity to share our knowledge is a way of saying thank you to our heritage and the land of our grandparents and the generations before,” said the man whose brother is the assistant coach of the Australian team.
Consul general Riccardo Dalla Costa is presented with a team jersey by federation officials
“My father was born Italian as my grandparents took Australian citizenship after he was born. So we got dual citizenship. The laws have changed in recent times. It’s harder to get Italian citizenship now,” said Di Venuto, who has played one-dayers for Italy in the European Championship in 2000 and 2002.
The story is similar for the Mosca brothers, who starred in the emphatic win versus Nepal on February 12. “I was born in Sydney. My nonna and nonno, on both mom and dad’s sides, migrated to Australia after World War,” said Justin Mosca, a schoolteacher in Sydney, who has visited his ancestral region of Abruzzo in central Italy “a few times”. “Some of my cousins have moved back to Italy. Since the pandemic, the two of us have gone back once every year for cricket,” he said, turning to his elder brother Anthony Joseph Mosca, who is known in the team as AJ. The two brothers made T20 World Cup history last week by putting up the highest partnership for a sibling pair.
AJ used to be a carpenter till he took up a teacher’s job at a juvenile detention centre in Sydney. “We heard about Cricket Italy in 2019 and that with our Italian passports, we could play for Italy. In fact, it was Ben Manenti who got a call from the (Italian) federation and alerted us. Ever since Covid eased, we travel back to Italy every year to do our medicals under Italian law,” AJ said.
The Manentis — Ben and Harry — are the other sibling duo in their team, who also happen to stay in Australia. While Ben scored a 50 in their first match, making him the first Italian to score a World Cup half-century, Harry took over captaincy once the regular captain Wayne Madsen injured his shoulder in the inaugural game versus Scotland.
Justin is aware that their Italian descent could be construed as a lucky break as selection in the Australian side is very competitive. But he refuses to accept it as such. “You don’t make it to a national team of any country without hard work. People have given up their jobs and their time to dedicate to the cause. Unfortunately, my grandparents had to leave Italy to start a new life. I am lucky to reap the rewards of their sad move.”
They have been training for the World Cup since last July. “The two of us trained in Sydney but GP (Gian Piero Meade) and Grant Stewart came down from the UK for some time as well. Grant is from Sydney but plays professionally with Kent,” said AJ.
GP, now studying physiotherapy at Teeside University in Middlesborough, has been playing cricket growing up in South Africa. “I moved to the UK in 2019 for cricket and for my Masters.” From September till early-January, he prepared for the World Cup in Australia, first with the Manentis in Adelaide and then at AJ’s house in Sydney. He qualified for the team through his Milan-born mother. It was his childhood dream to play for South Africa. “But so many people play cricket in South Africa. I played provincial cricket through the age groups till under-19. I probably wasn’t in the system long enough.”
In 2014, he got a call from his mother’s cousin in Italy, suggesting that he apply. “I made my debut for Italy in 2016,” said the South African, who speaks Italian. “The team meetings are in English. I translate for the boys. But Grant is learning Italian, so is our assistant coach Kevin O’Brien, who is from Ireland,” said Meade, who follows Alex Carey and likes Rishav Pant.
The players grew up aware of the legacy of Eden Gardens, where they play three of their four league matches (the last one against West Indies is on February 19). The experience of playing at the ground is “unbelievable”, AJ said.
Team manager Peter Di Venuto flanked by
Though their schedule is tight, Peter Di Venuto is hoping for a Calcutta tour during a break between matches while Meade wants to see the Taj Mahal. The other encounter he is hoping will happen is with the Indian skipper, “Sky” (Surya Kumar Yadav).
For now, the Azzurri want to play well in the tournament to inspire folks back in Italy. “I am honoured to be a part of the infancy of cricket in Italy. I hope we will be able to be a part of a long tradition of cricket there in our lifetime because I know there is a lot of passion and belief in the country to make anything work. It is a great opportunity to start something historic for the country,” Justin Mosca summed up.
