KOLKATA: The Eden Gardens was teeming with the presence of the top brass of the Italian Cricket Federation (FCRI) on Sunday. The federation’s president, vice-president and CEO were set to watch their country’s debut at the T20 World Cup on Monday.

The occasion isn’t lost on them so they have flown down three Italian journalists from some of their bigger publications to send cricket-related dispatches back home to ensure news of their achievements reaches the football-mad public in Italy.

Cricket is not new to Italy. In the late 1800s, when AC Milan was founded, cricket had a pride of place at the club but not anymore. Italian forward, Christian Vieiri grew up in Australia and had a fling for cricket.

Now, there are no professional players in Italy. In fact, several players have had to pause their day jobs to represent the country.

Take the case of Justin Mosca, who teaches physical education at a school in Sydney, and his brother Anthony, who teaches carpentry at a juvenile centre there.

Crishan Kalugamage, who moved from Sri Lanka to Italy as a teenager, works as a pizza-maker. Zain Ali, whose doctor dad left Pakistan, is a mechanical engineer. Born in Punjab, Jaspreet Singh, who drove Uber in the UK and trains in Birmingham, has always had to juggle his day job to keep the fire burning. Some players feature in domestic cricket across England, South Africa and Australia.

That said, the Italian National Olympic Committee has now stepped in with the inclusion of cricket in the Olympics. “I think they are heading down that path, but still, years away,” Justin said.

“Italy Cricket, while it's been around for a long time, is in its infancy stages of understanding how much goes into this sort of work. I think they need to build the structure, and probably need more staff. So it's in the process, but in terms of becoming a professional sport and making a living out of it, I think that's still something they have to work through." 

The story is reported by Gomesh S of The New Indian Express