It has taken its time, but cricket is making inroads in Italy. Krithika V narrates the rise of the phenomenal Regina Suddahazai Khan and the Italian team.
Italy Women were bowled out for for 42 in the first match of the Women’s World Cup European Division 2 Qualifiers against Jersey Women. They lost that match by seven wickets.
At that point, few had expected them to qualify for the Division 1 Qualifiers, but Italy bounced back to win four matches on the trot to finish second on the points table.
The Jersey match also marked the T20I debut of teenager Regina Suddahazai Khan, who ended as Italy’s leading wicket-taker with seven wickets. “The climate conditions in Jersey were completely different from Italy, and the players weren’t used to it,” she would later admit.
In February, Italy became one of the teams to participate in the first ever ECN T10 tournament for Women, along with the Netherlands, Gibraltar and Sweden. The ECN T10 was the first ever women’s tournament to be played under the lights in Gibraltar: it was live-streamed with multiple cameras.
Regina’s first ever match for Italy came during this competition. On debut, against Gibraltar, she ended with 4-1 including a hat-trick. She ended as the leading wicket-taker of the tournament and helped Italy to reach the final, where they lost to the Netherlands by 62 runs.
“ECN T10 was a fun competition. The rule was pretty simple. For batters, it was about hitting every ball, and for bowlers, it was targeting the stumps,” reminisced Regina.
Regina is on 🔥 ! She took 2️⃣ wickets in two balls last night and is the leading wicket taker in the series.💪 @FedCricket #EuropeanCricket #StrongerTogether #CricketinGibraltar pic.twitter.com/DTs6VLs7LO
— European Cricket (@EuropeanCricket) February 22, 2023
Despite making her international debut, Regina is yet to play Italy’s domestic league games. The league is likely to happen before the start of the European Qualifier Division 1: “We will head to the camp soon, and I think we will play a domestic tournament before that.”
Spain will host the Women’s T20 World Cup Europe Qualifier Division 1, with France, Italy, Netherlands and Scotland as the other participants. The top two teams will make it to the 2024 ICC Women’s T20 World Cup Qualifier, where they will take on Ireland, Sri Lanka and six other teams through regional qualifiers.
