Italian captain Wayne Madsen, defender and coach John Davison during training. (PTI Photo) KOLKATA: There is a hushed curiosity around the Italian cricket team. While the usual buzz that surrounds an international cricket match is absent here at the Eden Gardens, a small number of the faithful turned out at the iconic stadium when the Italians touched down for practice on Sunday afternoon. They take on Scotland in their first T20 World Cup match here on Monday and captain Wayne Madsen admits there will clearly be some butterflies in the stomach.Go Beyond The Boundary with our YouTube channel. SIGN UP NOW!“We’ve had a good preparation and some great practice matches,” he said before getting to the nets. “But the real thing starts now. The fact that they are in the World Cup sunk in when the tournament started on Saturday. “The boys are excited and want to go there and play. It helps that Scotland are their first opponents, a team they know quite well. “We’ve played them a few times and we know quite a bit about them,” added Madsen.
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Perhaps it also helps that Scotland, a last-minute entry into the World Cup, may not be so well prepared. A loss to the West Indies on Saturday would leave them a bit low.“We saw the game and we took the points,” said coach John Davison, a former Canadian cricketer best known for his 67-ball century against the West Indies in the 2003 Over-50 World Cup. “The wicket looks pretty good for batting.By the way, Italy has no goal with natural grass.“We play on artificial goals,” Davison said. So he has to make a number of adjustments: the surface, the atmosphere and the crowd. The official admitted that at home they are used to playing in front of the audience in single digits!Having won both their practice matches against Canada and UAE in Chennai as well as one match against Ireland in Dubai, their confidence will be quite high. A win against Scotland on Monday would be a dream start to their journey in cricket’s big league.
