Former Bedford School student, Emilio Gay is due to move up north to Durham for the new English county cricket season in 2025 but his preparations for the new challenge continued as part of the extended Cricket World Cup competition throughout November.
Gay was called up to the Italy squad as part of the Cricket World Cup Challenge League, with the Italians securing their spot for the play-offs qualifier; one step closer to the 2027 World Cup.
Gay qualifies for Italy thanks to his Mother’s side of the family, but his participation in this competition does not damage any hopes of one day playing for England due to ICC regulations.
The ECB’s qualification rules state that players must be a British citizen and have not played cricket for any ICC Full Member country except England at under 17 level or above.
Italy are not one of the twelve full ICC members, meaning Gay could make his international bow without affecting his chances of an England call up.
Runs galore
Gay repaid the Italians’ faith in him with four half-centuries in as many games, finishing the tournament as the second leading run scorer with 269 runs in four innings, and an average of 134.5.
His unbeaten 96 from 84 balls helped Italy secure a comfortable nine wicket victory in the tournament’s opening game against Tanzania before contributing 57 to Italy’s big total of 342/4 against Hong Kong in another convincing win.
Their game against Bahrain was abandoned without a ball being bowled before Gay was back in the runs with 50 off 51 balls in a losing effort against hosts, Uganda.
66 from 45 balls from Gay helped Italy confirm their place in the next round with another triumph against Singapore.
Italy have benefited from ICC registration rules in attracting English county stalwart, Wayne Madsen, former Australian international batter, Joe Burns and Gay’s former teammate at Northamptonshire, Gareth Berg to the international ranks.
They will now move on to the qualifying play-offs.
Chester-le-Street awaits
In August, Emilio’s county of nine years, Northamptonshire announced that Gay had not signed a new contract at Wantage Road with Durham announcing that he was to move to the Riverside Ground for 2025.
As it transpired, Gay made his Durham debut in September as he joined on loan for the final game of the season against county champions, Surrey, scoring a belligerent 48 batting at five in the second innings.
The now ex-Northamptonshire head coach, John Sadler labelled Emilio as “ambitious” and said, “[Emilio] believes a fresh challenge will be the best thing for him on his quest to play international cricket.”
Emilio’s new boss, Durham’s Director of Cricket, Marcus North described Gay as, “one of the most exciting young batters in the country”, not a bad endorsement from a former Australian international.
Read: Emilio Gay signs for Durham after rejecting new Northants contract
Gay will certainly be looking further ahead than the cricket squares of Kampala and Entebbe in his quest for international honours, but he can now at least claim to have made his international debut before he embarks on his new venture at the Riverside.
He will re-join his new county’s setup ahead of the new cricket season which is due to start in April 2025.
