Italy has qualified for the T20 World Cup 2026 Host to be held in India. This is the first time that Italy Cricket Team must be participating in an ICC event. Italy has now become the 15th team, which has qualified for the next year’s T20 World Cup, a total of 20 teams will participate in this tournament. Italy’s qualification is evidence that the game of cricket is leaving its mark around the world, but do you know when cricket started in Italy and how this team has got admission in their first World Cup tournament.

When did cricket start in Italy?

The Italian Cricket Federation was established in the year 1980, after which the team got membership of ICC after four years. The Italian cricket team played their first official match in the year 1984, in those days this team used to play with local clubs in London. At the same time, Italy’s first international cricket match came against Denmark in 1989, which was a draw. Finally, about 11 years after playing the first official match, he became an associate member of Italy ICC in 1995.

How to qualify for T20 World Cup?

The teams living in the top-8 of the previous T20 World Cup got direct qualification for the 2026 World Cup, while four teams got admission in the World Cup based on the ranking. At the same time, the remaining 8 teams have to make a place in the World Cup tournament via regional qualifiers. Italy has also found entry into the World Cup via qualifiers.

A total of 30 teams participated in the Europe qualifier, which were divided into 2 groups of five teams. Toping Group-A, Italy made it to the final stage of Europe Regional Qualifiers, where only two of the 5 teams were to get admission in the World Cup. In this phase, Italy lost to the Netherlands, yet Italy was ahead of the Jersey team in the case of net run-rate, due to which it got entry in T20 World Cup 2026.

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