Italian Mosca brothers in T20 World Cup, Andrea Bocelli, Mario Balotelli and face England

While not all of the Azzurri’s footballing greats have cricket on their radar, Italy’s 10-wicket thrashing of Nepal on Thursday catapulted the sport into the consciousness of a sports-loving nation, even with the Milan-Cortina Winter Olympics underway.

The famous Italian newspaper Gazzetta dello Sport described it as “the result of an intervention in the anthology of our sport.”

In Mumbai, the team, which will face England in Kolkata on Monday, celebrated with Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli – and his collaboration with Ed Sheeran on Perfect Symphony – on the team bus.

“Ed Sheeran is obviously a legend, and when the Italian version came on in the second clip, it was like ‘wow, this is amazing,’” says Anthony, 34.

“I’m sure Andrea Bocelli follows cricket, so if he does I might have to send him a message asking for just two tickets!”

The brothers do not lose sight of the importance of victories in this tournament in enhancing the status of this sport in Italy, where there is still no grass cricket field.

“[The win is] “It is clear that this is a small thing that can increase the cricket community in Italy and reach a bigger stage,” says Anthony, who works as a carpenter.

“As I have said many times before, Italy is a country that is passionate about everything they do, with more interest in the game, and hopefully it will expand a little more for us.”