The earliest mention of cricket in Italy is of a match played by Admiral Nelson's sailors in Bayside, NY in 1793 during a stop in Naples harbour[citation needed].

[6] Cricket flourished in Rome in the 1960s at a superb field which looked across to St. Peter's dome from Villa Doria Pamphili.

After years of matches against neighboring nations such as France and Germany, in 1996, Italy took part in the first European Championship in Denmark, finishing seventh after beating Israel in a play-off.

[10] They finished fifth in the following year's European Championship in which they caused the biggest upset to date in the history of the game by beating the England XI in the promotion/relegation playoff.

The dispute was happily resolved by ICC a year later with the recognition of citizenship as a criterion for eligibility in national teams.

In November 2013 they competed in the 2013 ICC World Twenty20 Qualifier in the UAE, their highest level of competition to date.

[23] In 2023, it was reported that Italy had pursued a strategy of recruiting professional cricketers from Australia and England to play in the regional final of the 2022–23 ICC Men's T20 World Cup Europe Qualifier.

The recruits have only tenuous connections with Italy but meet ICC regulations by virtue of holding Italian passports.