Italy join Scotland, Nepal, West Indies and England in Group C of the 16-team tournament, with the top two progressing to the Super Eight phase. Their coach, former Ireland international Kevin O\u2019Brien, has set his sights on reaching the knockout stage and was encouraged by the team\u2019s performance in a pre-tournament tri-series against Ireland and the Netherlands in Dubai.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re targeting to win games and, ultimately, want to qualify from the group,\u201d said O\u2019Brien. \u201cWe\u2019ve got a very experienced squad, maybe not necessarily at World Cups, but we\u2019ve certainly got players who have been playing professional cricket for numerous years.<\/p>\n
\u201cOn our day, we can compete with any of the four other teams in our group. We beat Ireland in a T20 chasing 157, so that gives us a lot of confidence.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Wayne](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/GettyImages-2227960210-1770121230.jpg\")
Wayne Madsen, who also plays for Derbyshire and the London Spirit in the UK, is the captain of the Italy national team [File: Adam Davy\/PA Images via Getty Images]Who\u2019s in Italy\u2019s squad?<\/p>\n
The 15-player squad is a mixture of five \u201chome-base\u201d players and others drawn from Australia, South Africa and England who qualify as Italian through relatives. None were born in Italy, although several hold Italian passports.<\/p>\n
There are two sets of Australian brothers: Harry and Ben Manenti, and Justin and Anthony Mosca. Both Manenti brothers have played in Australia\u2019s Big Bash League, and Ben played in South Australia\u2019s title-winning Sheffield Shield team last season.<\/p>\n
Other notable names include 37-year-old former South Africa international, JJ Smuts, who recently qualified through his wife\u2019s heritage. A regular on the T20 franchise circuit, the explosive top-order batter and handy left-arm orthodox spinner is expected to lead the way with both bat and ball.<\/p>\n
The captain is 42-year-old Wayne Madsen, a South African-born batter who moved to England and is currently the Derbyshire club captain, armed with the experience of 253 first-class appearances. Grant Stewart, originally from Australia, is another experienced professional in English domestic cricket, where he plays for Kent.<\/p>\n
Aside from Kalugamage, who is now a leg spinner, there are four home base players. Zain Ali is a towering all-rounder who was born in Pakistan and moved to Italy with his family as a two-year-old. Hassan Ali and Syed Naqvi also have Pakistani roots, while Jaspreet Singh was born in India and raised in Italy.<\/p>\n
Rounding out the squad are Marcus Campopiano, who hails from England, South African-born Gian Piero Meade and England-based Australian player Thomas Draca.<\/p>\n
The authenticity issue<\/p>\n
There will undoubtedly be questions about whether a side fielding several players who have played much of their cricket in other countries can truly be considered Italian, or if their inclusion is helping Italian cricket grow in any meaningful way.<\/p>\n
O\u2019Brien is adamant that the team identity is based firmly around Italian culture.<\/p>\n
\u201cBefore the qualifiers, they spoke about why they\u2019re playing for Italy,\u201d said O\u2019Brien. \u201cA lot of the players have a deep connection to the country through parents or grandparents, a lot of them certainly when it comes to Italian culture. The home-based players all speak Italian fluently, three or four of the non-Italian-based players speak it fluently. It\u2019s an important thing that we do, and something that brings the people, the players and the culture and cricketing history in Italy all together.\u201d<\/p>\n
O\u2019Brien has experience of playing international cricket with players of mixed backgrounds, and he likens the current Italian squad to that of Ireland\u2019s debut World Cup squad in 2007, which included several players from Australia and South Africa, although he acknowledges Ireland had a stronger domestic system.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe difference is the club cricket. You\u2019re not going to get somebody from Australia to come over and be a professional in one of the clubs in Milan or Rome, because the standard isn\u2019t there at the moment.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a strong understanding and passion for cricket in Italy, and the Federation is getting into schools. They are making steps, trying to take cricket more into the grassroots level in Italy.<\/p>\n
\u201cOf course, it\u2019s going to be difficult. But if you don\u2019t take these baby steps, you\u2019ll never know where the sport can get to, and World Cups, it\u2019s gonna grow the interest. You might not see the results for 10 years or so, but this World Cup can be a huge springboard for cricket in the country.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Italy](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/s2-1770120021.jpg\")
Italy have already signalled their intensions for the T20 World Cup, defeating Canada by 10 runs in Chennai, India, on Monday [Courtesy: International Cricket Council]Chrishan\u2019s story<\/p>\n
Kalugamage\u2019s journey highlights the importance of accessibility. After moving to a small town near Lucca, he turned to athletics in the absence of cricket and trained with Olympic gold medallist Marcell Jacobs, excelling in the long jump.<\/p>\n
He discovered a local team before joining Roma Cricket Club, where he still plays, juggling cricket with 700-kilometre (435-mile) round trips from Lucca, where he works as a pizza chef.<\/p>\n
\u201cI lost a lot of jobs playing cricket in Italy, because I\u2019m working in the restaurant,\u201d said Kalugamage. \u201cSunday is the very busy day, so sometimes when I asked to leave to play cricket, they said \u2018No, you can\u2019t do it.\u2019 But I leave my job, and I play cricket.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kalugamage\u2019s development as an international leg spinner is remarkable considering Italian club cricket is played on a synthetic pitch typically used by junior and recreational players. O\u2019Brien believes he could be a trump card for Italy with his quick leg breaks and googlies.<\/p>\n
But Kalugamage also represents potential talent and passion. He cried with joy when Italy secured their qualification and says he has witnessed the sport\u2019s growth in his adopted country.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat we are actually thinking is that after the World Cup, it will be even bigger, and maybe a lot of young kids will be attracted by cricket and performances of our team.\u201d<\/p>\n
World Cup ambition<\/p>\n
O\u2019Brien knows what it\u2019s like to shake up the established order. In 2011, he scored the then fastest World Cup century \u2013 off just 50 balls \u2013 in what was, at the time, the highest successful World Cup chase as Ireland defeated England.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a big similarity between where we are to where Irish cricket was in 2007, in terms of the strength of the teams. So there\u2019s absolutely no reason why this Italian team can\u2019t go into a group and win games and qualify for the Super Eight.\u201d<\/p>\n
For Kalugamage, who has never played in front of a large crowd, just making it to the world stage is a fulfilment of his childhood dreams.<\/p>\n
\u201cIl cricket e la mia vita,\u201d he smiled when asked what the game means to him.<\/p>\n
Cricket is my life.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As a child growing up in the small village of Marawila, about 20 minutes from Negombo, Sri Lanka,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":456527,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[564],"tags":[64,63,740,2057,74733,2328,44,588,85],"class_list":["post-456526","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cricket","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-cricket","tag-europe","tag-icc-mens-t20-world-cup","tag-italy","tag-news","tag-sport","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/456526","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=456526"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/456526\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/456527"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=456526"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=456526"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=456526"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}