Early history
The earliest mention of cricket in Italy is of a match played by Admiral Nelson's sailors in 1793 during a stop in Naples harbour. [5] Around the end of the 19th century, several combined cricket and association 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. [6] Cricket flourished in Rome in the 1960s at a superb field which looked across to St. Peter's dome from Villa Doria Pamphili. The Australian and British embassies, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, the Commonwealth War Graves Association, the Venerable English College and Beda College fielded teams which competed for the Rome Ashes there until, in the 1970s, the Villa became a public park. [7]
When cricket resumed in Rome on other grounds at the end of the 1970s, four of the Villa Doria Pamphili-era players formed in 1980 the Doria Pamphili Cricket Club: the Italian-Sri Lankan Francis Alphonsus Jayarajah, the Italian-Indian Massimo da Costa, the Australian Desmond O'Grady and the Syrian Issam Kahale [8]
In the same period, some cricket was played in the northern part of Italy with the Milan Cricket Club being formed in the 1970s and Euratom CC in the 1980s.
Modern history
The "Federazione Cricket Italiana" (Italian Cricket Federation) was formed in 1980, [6] and they became an affiliate member of the ICC in 1984, and were promoted to associate member in 1995. [9]
After years of matches against neighboring nations such as France and Germany, in 1996, Italy took part in the first European Championship in Denmark, finishing seventh after beating Israel in a play-off. [10] 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. [11] They finished fifth in the following year's European Championship in which they caused the biggest upset to date in the history of the game by beating the England XI in the promotion/relegation playoff. [12]
In 1999, Italy took part in a quadrangular tournament in Gibraltar also featuring France and Israel. [13] They won the tournament, beating the hosts in the final. [14] They finished fifth in Division One of the European Championship the following year [15] 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, Italian citizens by birth but not resident in Italy. The dispute was happily resolved by ICC a year later with the recognition of citizenship as a criterion for eligibility in national teams. [16]
The 2002 European Championship saw Italy finish sixth in Division One, [17] relegating them for 2004 to Division Two, which they promptly won. [18] 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. [19]
They took part in Division One of the European Championship in 2006, finishing fifth. [20]
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 played in Division Four of the World Cricket League in 2008 to come third and remained in 2010 ICC World Cricket League Division Four. [21] With a second-place finish there, they were promoted to 2011 ICC World Cricket League Division Three, where they came 4th to remain in 2013 ICC World Cricket League Division Three. They had a chance of reaching the 2015 Cricket World Cup, if they finished in the top two in the 2013 ICC World Cricket League Division Three, and then in the top two of the 2013 Cricket World Cup Qualifier. An encouraging start to this tournament witnessed wins over Oman (9 wickets) and United States (8 runs), followed by defeats, narrowly to Ireland (2 wickets) and more comprehensively against Kenya (7 wickets). After finishing last in this tournament they were relegated to Division Four in 2014.
In November 2013 they competed in the 2013 ICC World Twenty20 Qualifier in the UAE, their highest level of competition to date. They finished 9th place with victories over the US, and higher-ranked opponents in UAE and Namibia.
2018–present: T20I status
In April 2018, the ICC decided to grant full Twenty20 International (T20I) status to all its members. Therefore, all Twenty20 matches played between Italy and other ICC members since 1 January 2019 have the T20I status. [22]
In September 2018, Italy qualified from Group B of the 2018–19 ICC World Twenty20 Europe Qualifier to the Regional Finals of the tournament. [23]
Italy played their first T20I against Germany in May 2019.
- Germany won the toss and elected to bat.
- First ever T20I match for Italy.
On July 11, 2025, following a stunning 12-run upset over Scotland at the European Regional Final, [24] [25]
- Italy won the toss and elected to bat.
Italy sealed a spot at the 2026 Men's T20 World Cup after finishing at second-place beating Jersey on net run rate. [26] [27]
The Irish cricket team toured UAE in January 2026 for a three match T20I series against Italy. [28] [29] In the 3rd T20I, Italy shocked Ireland in what would be their first win against a full member side in men's T20I cricket. [30]
- Italy won the toss and elected to field.
- Italy won the toss and elected to field.
- This was the first time Italy and Nepal faced each other in T20Is. [31]
- This was the first World Cup match victory for Italy across all formats. [32]
Oman at Dubai; 13 March 2012
Denmark at Bagsværd; 15 July 1989
Germany at Sportpark Maarschalkerweerd, Utrecht; 25 May 2019
West Indies at Eden Gardens, Kolkata; 19 February 2026
