When he's not tossing legbreaks, Crishan Kalugamage tosses pizza in Lucca

Cricket has never been a casual pursuit for the Negombo-born Kalugamage, who wants to play a role in deepening the sport's roots in Italy

Sruthi Ravindranath

Feb 11, 2026, 7:23 PM • 13 hrs ago

Crishan Kalugamage can make a mean pizza. But when he's not busy hand-tossing dough at the pizzeria he works at in Lucca, in the heart of Tuscany, he's giving the ball a rip on an astroturf ground in Rome, fine-tuning his legspin with the same precision.

Cricket, for Kalugamage, has never been a casual pursuit. It's been a sustained commitment alongside his day job, fuelled by little more than love for the game and a stubborn belief that it could take him somewhere someday. It has now carried him to the 2026 T20 World Cup, where he wears the Azzurri blue with pride, representing Italy on the global stage.

"I had no words to explain how I felt when we qualified for the World Cup," Kalugamage says. "There were a few of us who were crying because it was a dream for us to play in the World Cup, and for me it's doubly emotional because it's happening in Sri Lanka and India. When the Italian anthem played during the first game of the World Cup, I felt very proud because I've always felt like I must honour the shirt I wear."

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When Kalugamage's parents moved from Sri Lanka to Italy for work in 2007, when he was around 16, he was heartbroken for several reasons. But at the top of it all was the fact that he could no longer pursue his dream of becoming a professional cricketer. His childhood in Negombo was spent listening to cricket commentary on the radio with his grandfather and playing cricket with his friends at school and after school. He was also part of his school's Under-13 and Under-15 teams.

Italy offered no obvious cricketing pathway. Adjusting to a new culture and environment was challenging enough, and the absence of the sport he loved made it harder. He enrolled in athletics in school and eventually started playing tennis-ball cricket recreationally with other Sri Lankans in Italy. What began as casual games gradually evolved into competitive cricket, with Kalugamage and a few friends turning out for minor clubs in Lucca.

The breakthrough came in 2015-16, when he earned an opportunity with Roma Cricket Club, one of the oldest clubs in Italy. He has remained there ever since, a decade-long association that has shaped his development.

There were detours along the way. As he grew taller, Kalugamage reconsidered legspin. "I suddenly shot up in height, so I thought I should become a fast bowler. I even got a chance to play for the Italian A team, and I played there as a fast bowler."

In 2019, he had a stint with the Sri Lankan domestic side Kandy Customs Cricket Club, again as a fast bowler. But he was soon forced to make the switch back.

"I had a lot of injuries because of fast bowling. So in 2021, I changed back to being a legspinner." A key influence during that period was Prabath Ekneligoda, founder of Roma Cricket Club, who believed legspin was Kalugamage's true calling. The return to spin not only revived his career but also offered the promise of longevity.

Growing up, his heroes were Aravinda de Silva and Sanath Jayasuriya. As a legspinner, he looks to Shane Warne, Wanindu Hasaranga and Rashid Khan for inspiration. Ahead of the World Cup, he spent over a month in Colombo as a net bowler for Sri Lanka, using the opportunity to train during Italy's winter when outdoor practice is limited. It was there that he met Hasaranga and sought advice on bowling. "Our actions are pretty similar, actually," he says.

During the series against Ireland last year in Dubai, he also met Rashid, who offered him tips on bowling the googly. Kalugamage had an impressive outing in that series, picking up four wickets in three games, including a three-for in Italy's first-ever T20I win against Ireland.

Cricket now defines Kalugamage in the way he's always wanted it to, but it can't be all he does. "I had a lot of jobs in Italy but I had to give up a lot of jobs just because of cricket because they couldn't afford to give me leaves during tournaments," Kalugamage says.

He now works at La Vita pizzeria in Lucca from Monday to Saturday. On Sundays, he travels early to Rome for training and returns late in the evening, and in between he squeezes in gym sessions and running to maintain his fitness.

Kalugamage hopes to make cricket a full-time job in the future. "Now, my main job is in the restaurant," he says. "After the World Cup, we'll see if I have a chance to play somewhere. Hopefully, in the future, it's only cricket."

He has introduced some of his Italian friends to the sport, though he admits it will take time for cricket to take root more deeply. As one of the few fluent Italian speakers in the squad, he often helps his team-mates navigate the language. "Marcus Campopiano [middle-order batter] teaches Italian and Grant Stewart [allrounder] has started taking classes. I only correct the players when they make mistakes," he says, laughing.

In Italy, any sporting conversation eventually circles back to football, so it has been no surprise to Kalugamage that the cricketers have drawn encouragement from some of the country's biggest names in the game, with messages of support coming from former Italy superstars such as Christian Vieri and Andrea Pirlo, as well as official posts from Genoa Football Club. A passionate Inter Milan supporter, he counts Lautaro Martinez as his favourite player and hopes to unveil the striker's trademark arms-crossed celebration the next time he takes a wicket at the World Cup.

For Kalugamage, now 34, returning to the subcontinent to play a World Cup represents the pinnacle of his career. But he is determined it will not be a one-off, for himself or for Italian cricket. He wants to inspire the next generation so that young players do not have to navigate the same obstacles he did, and still does, and he hopes one day to move into coaching to remain close to the game.

"I would like it to go on. I want to leave a legacy from this level and make it easy for the future generation."

Sruthi Ravindranath is a sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo

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