From Division Four in 2014 To T20 World Cup 2026, Italy's Rise Is Truly Inspirational

Italy recently created history when they became the latest team to qualify for the T20 World Cup. While the Australian influx in the team has certainly played its part, there is no denying that they have earned their spot in the 20-team event. 

It took years of perseverance to get Italy to where they are at the moment. They had to build brick by brick, and it was not a smooth road for them. 

From 2018 to now, every decision Italy have taken has led them to this moment - a moment where plenty of dreams came true. For a team who were in Division Four in 2014 to make the World Cup 11 years later is indeed a fairytale.  

The route Italy took was a tad different, as they roped in plenty of players largely from Australia and England, just in time for T20 World 2022-23 sub-regional qualifiers, from where they progressed to the Europe regional qualifier. 

They were able to get Ben Manenti for the tournament, with his brother Harry joining in later. However, the biggest scalps for Italy were Australia batter Joe Burns and Grant Stewart, with the latter having plenty of county experience under his belt. 

They formed the fulcrum of the team and would go on to win many matches for Italy. Their biggest, of course, came against Scotland in the Regional final, a game that effectively sealed their spot in the T20WC.

The strategy of employing players from different nationalities but of Italian background has been put to use by many teams in the past, and is something that has played a vital role in enriching the quality of the team and the game. 

Italy have been lucky to have someone like Gareth Berg, the former captain and the current coach, who has been a constant in the Italian team for over a decade. His association with the Italians goes way back to 2012, where he debuted for the team in the 2012 T20 World Cup Qualifiers - the Azzurri's first official set of T20 matches. 

Berg is the history of modern Italian cricket. The South African-born all-rounder has played over 150 first-class matches - most of which have come in England - and in 2012 Berg made the odd call of opting to play for Italy, at a time when there was no guarantee that it would lead to a successful path ahead. 

But depending on the exports alone can't be a sustainable long-term strategy, and Italy know it. According to Italy assistant coach Kevin O'Brien, who has been with the team since 2022, there is already a solution for it, which is essentially the country tap into the schools. 

"That's going to happen with the resources and the time that's being put into the schools programme. For long-term success, Italian cricket can't rely continually on the people whose parents and grandparents moved for various reasons," O'Brien told the New Indian Express. 

"I think it's important that Italian cricket starts to develop their own players and get cricket into young boys and girls all around Italy. They will see the benefits of that in 5-10 years time."

Another talking point with most associate countries is a lack of or poor cricketing facilities. Especially for a country like Italy, where the majority of the population perhaps do not even know a sport like cricket exists. "I don't know anybody in Europe who watches cricket, let's be honest," Belgian footballer Kevin de Bruyne expressed shock when an AI platform showed cricket as the second-most popular sport in Europe. 

Little does de Bruyne know that AC Milan, one of Italy's most successful football clubs, was once called the Milan Cricket and Football Club. As years passed, though, only football stood the test of time. Which is ironic now, considering Italy have failed to qualify for the last two FIFA World Cups. Meaning by next year, they would have played more Cricket World Cups than Football World Cups in the last 10 years. 

For Italy to get to where they are today is indeed massive given that their cricket board was formed in just 1980 and became an affiliate member in 1984. Five years later Italy played their first official match against Denmark. In 1995, they were awarded associate member status.

Post that, they played a lot of matches against neighbours Denmark, France and Germany. Fast forward to 2025, they have now put themselves in a position to play top guns like India, England and Australia. If this ain't progress, then what is?