The Wisden Cricketer - August 2007

How cricket made Italian football

Matthew Barker

Supporters of Genoa, Italy's oldest professional football club, have long been proud of their Anglo roots. Founded, like AC Milan, by a group of Brits in 1893 as Genoa Cricket and Athletic Club (Sir James Spensley started the football in 1896), it's still officially known as Genoa Cricket and Football Club.

Things have been going well on the footballing front of late, with i grifoni (the Griffins) finally winning promotion back into Italy's Serie A after a series of false starts. Now, a group of supporters keen to know more about their distant cricketing past approached the club and are giving cricket a new lease of life.

Things have moved surprisingly fast, with a new team forming in May (after a quick guide to the finer points of the game from Luca Bruno, secretary of the Italian Cricket Federation) amid a flurry of national press interest. Weekly news magazine Panorama quoted Paolo Marini, one of the supporters behind the initiative, saying "the aim is to win the Italian championship within five years". Coach Mark Ebury seems a little alarmed: "Really? Blimey." Ebury was drafted in as coach after introducing the sport to students at the International School where he teaches.

For the moment, the side has a strong ex-pat element, made up of English, Sri Lankan, Bangladeshi, Indian and Pakistan players, though three Italians "come along to practice sessions every now and then".

A decent showing in July's third-division tournament in Bologna should generate further interest and, Ebury hopes, see a greater local presence in the side's cosmopolitan mix. Meanwhile, the football club continues to support its fledging offshoot's efforts, providing useful profile, along with sponsorship and expenses for equipment.

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