While not all of the Azzurri’s footballing greats have cricket on their radar, Italy’s thumping 10-wicket victory over Nepal on Thursday propelled the sport into the consciousness of a sport-loving nation, even with the ongoing Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics.
The iconic Italian newspaper Gazzetta dello Sport described it as “a result that enters the anthology of our sport”.
In Mumbai, the team, who play England in Kolkata on Monday, celebrated by singing Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli – and his collaboration with Ed Sheeran for Perfect Symphony – on the team bus.
“Obviously, Ed Sheeran’s a legend and then when the Italian version came on, into that second verse, it was like ‘wow, this is amazing’,” Anthony, 34, says.
“I’m pretty sure Andrea Bocelli follows cricket so if he does I might have to send him a message just asking for a couple of tickets!”
It is not lost on either brother how significant victories at this tournament might be for growing the profile of the sport in Italy, where there is still no grass cricket pitch.
“[The win is] obviously something small that can increase Italy’s cricket community and getting onto a bigger stage,” Anthony, who works as a carpenter, says.
“Like I’ve said many times before, Italy is such a passionate country with everything they do so with a bit more eyes on the game hopefully it expands a bit more for us.”
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