The pizza chef hoping to star for Italy at T20 World Cup

“It’s all about the fingertips” replies Crishan Kalugamage with a wink when asked about the similarities between bowling leg-spin and making pizzas.

Kalugamage moved from Sri Lanka to Lucca in Tuscany as a 15-year-old and is one of five home-based players in Italy’s 15-man squad for the T20 World Cup.

A sporty kid, Kalugamage made friends competing in athletics and then started playing some amateur cricket near his adopted hometown. His natural talent for the game set him apart and he was soon scouted to play for Roma Cricket Club, one of the oldest in the country.

The now 34-year-old is one of many players in the Italian squad who have known sacrifice to get where they are today, namely playing in front of thousands of people at famous cricketing stadiums such as Kolkata’s Eden Gardens and Mumbai’s Wankhede. A global audience of millions watching at home.

Kalugamage’s job as a pizza maker often came second to playing cricket. “I lost a lot of jobs,” he says ruefully, “Sunday is a very busy day, lots of bosses aren’t keen on you not working because you are playing cricket.”

“Crish is a very dangerous weapon” Italy’s head coach, John Davison, says on a separate call. “He can spin it sharply both ways and he will have the element of surprise, hardly anyone in the tournament will have ever faced him.”

Davison knows his rotations – he is also known as ‘The Spin Whisperer’. He has spent the last decade and a half as an in-demand spin coach. Nathan Lyon called Davison the “best spin coach in the world” and has worked with him since his teens.

None of the 15 squad members were born in Italy and only a few are fluent in the language.

Several players hold Italian passports or qualify because of a relative, and some people have baulked at the Italian Cricket Federation casting their net so wide rather than concentrating on developing more homegrown players.

South African born and South African capped (six ODIs and 16 T20Is between 2017 and 2021) all-rounder JJ Smuts will play for Italy during the tournament by dint of his marriage but has never even stepped foot in the country.

“People can have their opinion but we’ve got a real togetherness,” says captain Wayne Madsen, speaking before his side’s opening match against Scotland on Monday, which saw him dislocate his shoulder and his team soundly beaten.

The 42-year-old South African born batter is club captain at Derbyshire and has a wealth of experience with teams around the globe. Even so, this group of players has had a real effect on him.

“That heritage and the journeys that guys have gone on to get here, there’s a bond which is pretty hard to describe outside of the feeling that we get as a group,” said Madsen.

“It really is probably our biggest strength. Everyone’s got a story to tell in terms of how they got to this position and everyone’s is unique. Whether it is guys who have grown up in Italy or guys with grandparents who moved away many years ago. We’ve had some really powerful conversations, it has really bonded us.”

For Madsen and Davison, success on the pitch in this tournament is part of a wider plan to build on the growing cricketing roots in Italy.

“We want to win games and we know and believe that we can. If we can finish in the top eight, that’ll change the lives of a lot of our cricketers and put Italian cricket on the map” says Madsen.

For some of the squad, the prospect of playing in front of a large crowd will be something of an alien prospect. Davison mentions that the players had a training session inside Chennai’s MA Chidambaram Stadium a few days earlier and it was the first time that the Pakistani born and Italian raised left-arm seamer Hassan Ali had stepped foot inside a cricket stadium of any kind.

The players have been working with Dr Andrew Hooton, Head of the School of Sports and Exercises Science at the University of Derby, in order to prepare themselves. Hooton has worked with Madsen and Micky Arthur at Derbyshire and also with Burton Albion Football Club.

“Some of the squad definitely haven’t had experience of playing in a big stadium, under lights with huge crowds” says Hooton, “One of the things I’ve been working with them on is being able to perform their skills and maintain their basics in this heightened scenario.

“We’ve done some work around ‘centering’. Like when you see Ronaldo before he takes a free-kick or penalty, he closes his eyes and does a whole body breath. It allows for attentional focus but also helps to guard against nerves and anxiety. It’s physical as well as mental.”

Davison mentions the 33,000 seater Wankhede stadium in Mumbai is sold out for their second game against Nepal.

“The ICC give us about 75 tickets for friends and family, that leaves a heck of a lot of supporters for us to win over, but we’ll be giving it our best shot,”

“We have a platform to take cricket further, to take it to another level,” adds Madsen. “We’ve got the players to make that happen and we’re dreaming high. We aren’t just here to make up the numbers, we can take sides down.”