The town that banned cricket
A right-wing mayor, an immigrant population and a religion of sport mixed together - with interesting results
Herbert Kilpin was born in Nottingham, in 1870. He worked in the lace industry. That led him to travel to Turin, in Italy in 1891 to work for Edoardo Bosio. An Italian-Swiss textile merchant who founded a football club called Internazionale Torino. So Kiplin started playing for them. He was the first recorded English player of a major club outside his own country.
But then Kilpin moved to Milan, and after a drinking session with mates he decided to start a football club there. You may have heard of them, they’re called AC Milan.
This is the fun part though: this was not just a football club, because remember Kilpin was from Nottingham. And they are basically known for the four things, lace, football, Robin Hood, and cricket.
So when AC Milan was started, it was actually called Milan Foot-Ball and Cricket Club. The cricket didn’t take off, but this was not even the first cricket club in Italy.
The first recorded cricket match was played in Naples, organized by British Admiral Horatio Nelson, in 1793. The sport was brought to Italian streets by foreign sailors and merchants in the 1800s.
Rome had a cricket team founded in 1820. The sport did fine in Italy until the two World Wars. Then - as it did in other places - it faded away.
Until now.
Italy is one of five teams that will play the Europe Regional Final tournament later this year for a chance to feature in the 2026 T20 World Cup.
Though ranked just outside the Top 30 in the world at the moment, they dominated the Europe Sub-regional Qualifier, going unbeaten to make it to the final stage of the World Cup qualifying process. Investment has trickled in in the form of recruiting professional players from Test playing nations to represent Italy, and upgrading playing facilities at every level.
It is the most exciting time for cricket in Italy.
But, not everywhere.
Monfalcone is the northernmost port on the mediterranean.
The makeup of Monfalcone’s population is different from the rest of Italy in that one-third of it is made up of immigrants, one of the greatest concentrations of foreign-born residents in the country. The reason for this? Europe’s largest, and the world’s fourth largest shipyard.
Fincantieri is a state-controlled organisation who have shown a preference to importing labour to build their ships over the last couple of decades. This has meant that there has been a steady inflow of migrant workers, a large number of whom are Bangladeshis, to Monfalcone since the mid 1990s.
Their numbers have kept growing and have been further boosted by the family reunification policy in Italy, which allows foreign nationals to bring eligible family members, including spouses and dependents, to the country. This also means that there is a growing population of Italian-born Bangladeshis - they make up two-thirds of the annual births in Monfalcone.
There’s no denying that the influx of migrant workers has changed the landscape of the town. A network of cycle paths have emerged, primarily used by the Bangladeshis who prefer cycling to get around. The town has traditional Italian places to eat and get clothes, but also Bangladeshi food and clothing like Shalwars and Hijabs.
The town’s population only recently passed the 30,000 mark, which in theory is a positive trend, particularly when you consider that Italy’s birth rate has been in steady decline over the past couple of decades. However, it seems to have not gone down too well, particularly with the mayor.
Anna Maria Cisint, who belongs to Italy’s far-right League Party, first became mayor of Monfalcone in 2016 and was re-elected in 2022, riding a tide of anti-immigrant sentiment. One of her first acts in office was to remove the benches in the town square simply because it had become a gathering place for the foreign nationals. You can’t have people sitting down now, can you.
The mayor has made no secret of her disdain for the Bangladeshis living and working in Monfalcone, declaring their way of life ‘incompatible’ with the Italian way. In 2023, she penned an open letter to the Muslim community, effectively banning the wearing of burkinis. Cisint has also pushed for bans on Arabic lessons, observing of the holy month of Ramadan, and attempted to limit the number of foreign children in schools, because “they kept having so many babies”.
As you would expect, there is a rising sense of tension in the town as a result. It all came to a head when the mayor banned collective prayer at the two Islamic centres in town during 2023.
In Sofia Bettiza’s piece on the BBC, the Mayor is said to have justified her actions citing urban planning regulations. “People from the town started sending me shocking photos and videos which showed a huge number of people praying in the two Islamic centres: as many as 1,900 in just one building. There are so many bikes left on the pavement and loud prayers five times a day - even at night.” the mayor says.
The Islamic centres are not designated places of worship and Islam is not one of the 13 religions that have protected status under Italian law, but Cisint’s ban on prayers became a watershed moment for the Muslims in Monfalcone. In December 2023, it led to large-scale protests against the ban and Cisint’s anti-Islam stance.
Over 8,000 people took to the streets and the Muslim community looked for other legal ways to do away with the ban. In early 2024, a regional court ruled in favour of the two Islamic centres and annulled the decision to ban collective prayer.
Sadly, this kind of Islamophobia is hardly new. And it isn’t something you only get in Italy or Monfalcone.
But here is why we are talking about it, this mad mayor took it a step further, and decided to ban the Bangladeshis’ second religion as well, cricket.
The mayor banned the sport from being played within the borders of the town. Anyone caught playing cricket could be fined up to 100 Euros. Her reasons? There was no space and cricket balls were dangerous. It’s incredible the rest of us survive in these cricket-involved hell holes we live in.
It is clearly another way to make the people actually building the success of Monfalcone feel like they are not welcome. She claims she has been falsely accused of racism to delegitimise her political action in ‘defense’ of the community. She’s determined to keep fighting what she calls the “Islamisation of Europe”.
Cisint, who seems to have no objection to the town’s other significant foreign population, the Romanians, claims the Bangladeshis add no value to Monfalcone, telling the BBC, “They’ve given nothing to this city, to our community. Zero. They are free to go and play cricket anywhere else… outside of Monfalcone.”
But others beg to differ. Left-wing councillor in the region Enrico Bullian told The Guardian’s Angela Giuffrida that without the Bangladeshi community, Monfalcone would be like a ghost town.
Italy has one of the lowest birth rates in Europe and is also facing labour shortages, which is why Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has increased the number of permits for non-EU workers despite her party's anti-immigration tendencies. If Monfalcone wants to remain the home to the world’s fourth largest shipyard, they need the migrant workers.
Cricket playing, or otherwise.
Once the BBC and The Guardian published the story on the cricket ban, Fabio Marabini, President of the Italian Cricket Federation, was inundated with calls, messages from colleagues, and other sports fans from all over Europe. In addressing Cisint’s superficial concerns regarding playing cricket in Monfalcone - the lack of space, money and the danger posed by the cricket balls - Marabini argues that all three can be successfully addressed if only there was enough political will to actually do it. He even expressed to the Italian publication Il Piccolo that the Federation is willing to act as a guarantor if a suitable ground can be found for cricket to be played in Monfalcone.
The Italian team is a multi-cultural one, like many associate teams from all over the world. Their side features players born in Italy, South Africa, Australia, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. Former Australian Test opener Joe Burns is the captain of the men’s team. Former England death bowler Jade Dernbach played his last professional game for them. There are other domestic cricketers like Ben Manetti and Gareth Berg.
And you will not be shocked that this team is actually doing really well. How about this for fun: in the last three years, they have the same win-loss ratio as India. Against a slightly different quality of opposition. But if they keep playing like they are, it is possible that Italy qualify for the T20 World Cup.
The mayor of Monfalcone wants to divide, and she is using cricket to do that. But the thing with sport is, at its heart, it does what it has always done: brings people together. Herbert Kilpin knew that 125 years ago, when he was an immigrant who just wanted to play footy and cricket with his mates. The same as the people who are building Italy’s ship. They came for work, and they just want to play sport with their friends.
It may not lead to the next AC Milan, or a World Cup win. But that is not what this is about. Sport is a joy of living. It is something to be shared, not banned. If an Englishman can give Italy AC Milan, who knows what the Bangladeshis of Monfalcone can bring. Let them play.