England hopeful Emilio Gay completed a run of four consecutive half-centuries for Italy this week, during their Cricket World Cup Challenge League round of fixtures in Uganda.
Gay kicked off his run of scores with an unbeaten 96 off 84 balls against Tanzania earlier in the month, helping Italy to chase down their target with 98 balls remaining on the DLS method. Two days later, he scored 57 off 52 balls against Hong Kong and, last week, he score 50 off 51 against Uganda, sharing a 115-run opening stand with former Australia Test opener Joe Burns. The quartet of half-centuries was completed on Saturday (November 16), when Gay made 66* off 45 against Singapore, in a win that ensured Italy finished in second place of their Challenge League group, securing their place at the play-offs to reach the qualifier for the 2027 Men's Cricket World Cup.
Having left Northants late in the 2024 County Championship season, bringing forward his move to Durham after an injury to Scott Borthwick, Gay has been pinned as one to watch for potential England selection since the start of his career. A left-handed opener, Gay established himself in Northants' top-order after making his first-class debut in 2019 aged 20. He has an average of 35.48 from 50 County Championship matches, as well as six hundreds. He's also found success in the 50-over format, with on century and seven half-centuries from 30 innings.
On leaving Northants, Gay said: "Durham have a huge reputation of their players representing the national team, and with my aspirations to play for England, I hope this opportunity will enable me to fulfill my international aspirations."
Gay has Caribbean heritage as well as Italian and English. His father's family hail from Grenada and his mother's family is Italian, while he was born in Bedford and picked up by Northants' academy when he was 15. His decision to play for Italy this summer will not affect his ability to play for England if selected.
Under the ECB's qualification policy, players are qualified to play for England if they are a British citizen and if they have not "played cricket for any ICC Full Member country except England at under 17 level or above". The regulations also clarify that "a cricketer qualified for an ICC Associate Member Country can continue to represent that country without adversely affecting their eligibility or interrupting their qualification period unless and until the cricketer has played in an ICC event for a Full Member country."
Thus, as Gay has not yet played for England in an ICC event, playing for Italy does not affect whether he is qualified to play for England or not.
Gay is following in the path of several domestic and international names in playing for Italy. Wayne Madsen featured in Italy's bid to qualify for the 2026 men's T20 World Cup last year, in a side coached by Gareth Berg, who still plays for Italy. Spencer Johnson was also reportedly set for a stint with Italy last year, although it never came to fruition. After losing his Queensland contract, Burns also took up the opportunity to play for Italy.
Follow Wisden for all cricket updates, including live scores, match stats, quizzes and more. Stay up to date with the latest cricket news, player updates, team standings, match highlights, video analysis and live match odds.
