Roma Capannelle Cricket Club has won several Italian Leagues and Cups, but its aim has never been solely to win. The Roma Capannelle team believes the game is the thing - its members want to play well, fairly and also enjoy themselves.
Cricket flourished in Rome in the 1960s at a superb field which looked across to St. Peter's dome from Villa Doria Pamphili. The Australian and British embassies, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, the Commonwealth War Graves Association, the Venerable English College and Beda College fielded teams which competed for the Rome Ashes there until, in the 1970s, the Villa became a public park.
When cricket resumed in Rome on other grounds at the end of the 1970s, four of the Villa Doria Pamphili era players formed in 1978 the Doria Pamphili team: the Italian-Sri Lankian Alfonso Jayarajah, the Italian-Indian Massimo Da Costa, the Australian Desmond O'Grady and the Syrian Sam Kahale.
In 1983 Rome's Capannelle hippodrome provided a ground for the team, in the centre of the racecourse, so the name Capannelle Cricket Club was taken, and under the guidance of Jayarajah and Da Costa, who have alternated as captains. Under their coaching and encouragement, we have seen the development of several homegrown players, such as Peter Bonapace, Alberto Bet and Andrea Amati.
In 1988 the team won all four tournaments organized by the Italian Cricket Association (still the only team to do so in the history of Italian cricket) and had eight of their club members selected to play for the national team. Since its birth, the Club has won several trophies, such as the Italian Serie A championship (4 times), the Italian Cup (8 wins) and the Italian six-a-side trophy (5 wins in 7).
In 1989 and 1992 Capannelle took part in the European Club Cricket Festival in Durham (UK), finishing second and third in its particular section, and we quote from the "Cricket World" of September 1989 - "The Durham Villages took Capannelle of Rome to their hearts... their excitable nature made a wonderful atmosphere at the grounds where they played at."
In the 90's the club continued pursuing its Italian home grown players policy and started up the juniors sections. The youth brought to the club innumerable satisfactions and trophies such as Under 13 national champs, Under 15, Under 17 and Under 19.
The last Seria A title was won by Capannelle in the 2000 season, which later led to a big change in the team line up, as some youths started to break into the team. In new millennium the team finished second several times and even lost the title by run rate sharing the points with rivals Pianoro in the year 2007.
During these four decades the club provided a several talented
players to the Italian national team including skippers Jayarajah and Da Costa, Peter Bonapace, Alberto Bet, Andrea Amati, Massimo Crisanti, Riccardo Maggio, Gayashan Munasinghe, Vincenzo Pennazza, Peter Petricola, Leandro Jayarajah and Carl Sandri to mention a few.
In 2010 Roma Capannelle opened also a female section. The women’s team won the first Italian Serie A championship in their first year and doubled the season after.
The name of the club has changed to Roma Capannelle Cricket Club and now has thrilling Under 13,U15,U17 sections, the Seria A XI, the 2nd XI and even a Over 40 XI together with our women’s team.
The 1st XI is now captained by Leandro, son of the team founder, and boasts several Italian home grown players like Michele Morettini, Giuseppe Piperno, Giorgio Scalco, Niccolò Barca and Emi Ghulam. Together with players like Suresh Kekul, Ijaz Ahmed, Micheal Bates, Peter Petricola and Carl Sandri the club may be heading for the club's fifth scudetto this season!