From Pizza Oven to T20 World Cup: Crishan Kalugamage and Italy’s Unlikely Cricket Dream

“It’s all about the fingertips.”

Crishan Kalugamage says it with a wink, holding his hands up as if he’s about to toss a lump of dough into the Tuscan air. He’s talking about leg-spin bowling, but he could just as easily be describing the art of making the perfect pizza base.

For Kalugamage — a Sri Lanka-born, Italy-raised cricketer — the connection between flour and flippers, between dough and googlies, isn’t just a clever line. It’s his life. And now, that life has carried him all the way to the T20 World Cup, where he hopes to help Italy punch far above its weight on cricket’s biggest stage.

Pizza Chef Hoping to Star for Italy at the T20 World Cup

Kalugamage moved to Lucca, in Tuscany, as a 15-year-old boy. Like so many immigrant stories in sport, his journey wasn’t mapped out in neat lines. It was improvised, shaped by opportunity, hard work and the occasional leap of faith.

Sport was his first language. Athletics helped him make friends. Cricket came later, almost by accident, through amateur matches near his adopted hometown. It didn’t take long for people to notice that he had something different.

“There was always that natural feel,” one former teammate recalls. “He just knew how to spin it.”

Soon, he was spotted and brought into the fold at Roma Cricket Club — one of Italy’s oldest and most established cricket institutions. For a country where football reigns supreme, cricket remains niche. But within those tight-knit circles, reputations travel fast.

Now 34, Kalugamage stands as one of five home-based players in Italy’s 15-man squad for the T20 World Cup — a tournament that will see them walk out at iconic venues like Eden Gardens in Kolkata and Mumbai’s Wankhede Stadium, in front of thousands in the stands and millions watching worldwide.

For a man who once chose between shifts and spin sessions, it feels almost surreal.

The Sacrifices Behind the Italy T20 World Cup Squad

Kalugamage doesn’t romanticise the road he’s taken.

“I lost a lot of jobs,” he admits, without self-pity but with honesty. “Sunday is a very busy day. Lots of bosses aren’t keen on you not working because you are playing cricket.”

Being a pizza chef in Italy isn’t just a job; it’s an institution. Weekends are sacred in the restaurant business. But Sundays were also match days. Choices had to be made.

More often than not, cricket won.

Those sacrifices are a common thread running through this Italian squad. None of the 15 players were born in Italy. Only a handful speak fluent Italian. Many qualify through ancestry — grandparents who left decades ago — or through citizenship obtained later in life.

Some critics have questioned the Italian Cricket Federation’s approach, suggesting that casting the net so wide overlooks homegrown development. But inside the camp, that diversity is seen as strength, not compromise.

“Crish Is a Very Dangerous Weapon” – The Spin Whisperer’s Faith

More often than not, cricket won.

Italy’s head coach John Davison knows a thing or two about spin bowling. Nicknamed “The Spin Whisperer,” he has spent over 15 years refining the craft, working with elite players across the globe. Nathan Lyon once described him as the best spin coach in the world.

So when Davison speaks about Kalugamage, people listen.

“Crish is a very dangerous weapon,” he says. “He can spin it sharply both ways. And there’s the element of surprise — hardly anyone in the tournament will have faced him.”

In T20 cricket, mystery matters. A fast, skidding googly delivered with subtle variation can be as unsettling as raw pace. Kalugamage’s background — far from the traditional cricket academies — may actually be his advantage.

Batters in Group C — England, Scotland, Nepal and West Indies — will have done their homework. But film only tells part of the story. The rest comes down to fingertips.

A Team of Journeys, Not Just Passports

Italy’s squad reads like a map of the cricketing world.

JJ Smuts, born and previously capped for South Africa, qualifies through marriage. He has never even set foot in Italy. Captain Wayne Madsen, 42, also South African-born, balances international duty with his role as Derbyshire’s club captain.

Before their opening game against Scotland — a bruising encounter that saw Madsen dislocate his shoulder and Italy comprehensively beaten — the captain spoke about the bond within the group.

“That heritage and the journeys guys have gone on to get here — there’s a bond that’s hard to describe,” Madsen says. “Everyone’s got a story. Everyone’s path is unique.”

It’s not the kind of unity forged in childhood academies. It’s built from migration, sacrifice, rediscovery and second chances. Powerful conversations have taken place in team rooms, about grandparents who emigrated, about careers paused, about what wearing Italy’s colours truly means.

For Madsen, that shared experience might be Italy’s greatest weapon.

75 Friends and Family vs 33,000 Nepal Fans

If Italy’s first match offered a harsh introduction to elite-level cricket, their second presents an entirely different challenge. The Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai — capacity 33,000 — is sold out for their clash with Nepal.

The ICC allocates around 75 tickets for friends and family. The rest of the seats will be a sea of Nepalese supporters.

For some in the Italian squad, even stepping inside a cricket stadium was once unfamiliar territory. Davison recalls that Hassan Ali, a Pakistan-born seamer raised in Italy, had never previously set foot inside a professional cricket ground before a training session at Chennai’s MA Chidambaram Stadium.

To prepare the squad for the intensity, they’ve worked with Dr Andrew Hooton, Head of Sports and Exercise Science at the University of Derby.

“Some of the squad haven’t experienced playing under lights, in front of huge crowds,” Hooton explains. “We’ve focused on ‘centering’ techniques — controlling breathing, maintaining attentional focus.”

He references Cristiano Ronaldo’s ritual before free-kicks: eyes closed, full-body breath. Physical composure feeding mental clarity.

It may sound small. But in a stadium roaring with 33,000 voices, small margins matter.

Dreaming Beyond the T20 World Cup

For Madsen and Davison, this tournament is about more than results.

“We want to win games,” Madsen insists. “If we finish in the top eight, it could change lives. It would put Italian cricket on the map.”

Legacy is the word that surfaces often in conversation. Italy is not just here to participate. They want to leave something tangible behind — a platform for development, visibility for the sport, inspiration for kids in Rome, Milan and Lucca.

“We’re not here to make up the numbers,” Madsen says. “We can take sides down.”

Beside him, Kalugamage smiles quietly. He flicks his fingers, almost subconsciously, as if testing the seam of an invisible cricket ball.

From pizza ovens in Tuscany to the bright lights of Mumbai, his journey feels improbable. But then again, so does Italy’s presence at the T20 World Cup.

And if it truly is all about the fingertips, there may yet be a few more surprises to spin.