Damian Graham Crowley (born 20 May 1989) is a South African

cricket Cricket is a Bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball game played between two Sports team, teams of eleven players on a cricket field, field, at the centre of which is a cricket pitch, pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two Bail (cr ...

er of Italian descent. He made his debut for the Italian national side in August 2010, and has since captained Italy at several tournaments. Crowley is a right-handed

batsman In cricket, batting is the act or skill of hitting the cricket ball, ball with a cricket bat, bat to score runs (cricket), runs and prevent the dismissal (cricket), loss of one's wicket. Any player who is currently batting is, since Septembe ...

who bowls

slow left-arm orthodox Left-arm orthodox spin or left-arm off spin, also known as slow left-arm orthodox spin bowling, is a type of spin bowling in cricket. Bowlers using this technique bowl with their left-arm and a finger spin action. Their normal delivery spins ...

spin.

Playing career

Born in

Cape Town Cape Town is the legislature, legislative capital city, capital of South Africa. It is the country's oldest city and the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. Cape Town is the country's List of municipalities in South Africa, second-largest ...

, Crowley later moved to England, where he played

county cricket Inter-county cricket matches have been played since the early 18th century, involving teams that are representative of the historic counties of England and Wales. Two county championship competitions have existed since the late 19th century at ...

for the Nottinghamshire Second XI in 2008 and 2009, but unable to force his way into the county first eleven. Although he had an Italian background through his grandmother (an immigrant to South Africa from

Rimini Rimini ( , ; or ; ) is a city in the Emilia-Romagna region of Northern Italy. Sprawling along the Adriatic Sea, Rimini is situated at a strategically-important north-south passage along the coast at the southern tip of the Po Valley. It is ...

), Crowley did not meet ICC eligibility requirements for Italy until 2010. Soon after, he was selected as part of Italy's squad for the 2010 World Cricket League Division Four tournament, which was hosted by Italy. He made his debut for Italy during the tournament against

Nepal Nepal, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is mainly situated in the Himalayas, but also includes parts of the Indo-Gangetic Plain. It borders the Tibet Autonomous Region of China Ch ...

and went on to make a further five appearances during it, helping Italy earn promotion to the 2011 World Cricket League Division Three. Division Three was played in Hong Kong in January 2011, with Crowley selected as part of Italy's thirteen man squad. He played in all six of Italy's matches in the tournament, scoring 134 runs at an average of 26.80, with a high score of 53

not out In cricket, a batsman is not out if they come out to bat in an innings and have not been dismissed by the end of an innings. The batsman is also ''not out'' while their innings is still in progress. Occurrence At least one batter is not out at ...

. This was his only

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in the tournament and came against

Denmark Denmark is a Nordic countries, Nordic country in Northern Europe. It is the metropole and most populous constituent of the Kingdom of Denmark,, . also known as the Danish Realm, a constitutionally unitary state that includes the Autonomous a ...

. In July 2011, Crowley played in the European T20 Championship in

Jersey Jersey ( ; ), officially the Bailiwick of Jersey, is an autonomous and self-governing island territory of the British Islands. Although as a British Crown Dependency it is not a sovereign state, it has its own distinguishing civil and gov ...

and

Guernsey Guernsey ( ; Guernésiais: ''Guernési''; ) is the second-largest island in the Channel Islands, located west of the Cotentin Peninsula, Normandy. It is the largest island in the Bailiwick of Guernsey, which includes five other inhabited isl ...

, which saw Italy end the tournament as runners-up to Denmark. This result qualified them to take part in the World Twenty20 Qualifier in the

United Arab Emirates The United Arab Emirates (UAE), or simply the Emirates, is a country in West Asia, in the Middle East, at the eastern end of the Arabian Peninsula. It is a Federal monarchy, federal elective monarchy made up of Emirates of the United Arab E ...

in March 2012. Crowley was selected as part of Italy's fourteen man squad for the qualifier. He made his

Twenty20 Twenty20 (abbreviated T20) is a shortened format of cricket. At the professional level, it was introduced by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) in 2003 for the county cricket, inter-county competition. In a Twenty20 game, the two t ...

debut during the tournament against

Oman Oman, officially the Sultanate of Oman, is a country located on the southeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula in West Asia and the Middle East. It shares land borders with Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Yemen. Oman’s coastline ...

. He made eight further appearances during the tournament, the last of which came against

Kenya Kenya, officially the Republic of Kenya, is a country located in East Africa. With an estimated population of more than 52.4 million as of mid-2024, Kenya is the 27th-most-populous country in the world and the 7th most populous in Africa. ...

. Having previously kept wicket for Italy, this role was instead undertaken by Alessandro Bonora and Hayden Patrizi, therefore allowing Crowley the opportunity to bowl regularly throughout the tournament. In his nine matches, he took 13 wickets at a

bowling average In cricket, a player's bowling average is the number of runs they have conceded per wicket taken. The lower the bowling average is, the better the bowler is performing. It is one of a number of statistics used to compare bowlers, commonly use ...

of 12.46, with best figures of 4/18. He ended the tournament as Italy's joint leading wicket-taker alongside

Carl Sandri Carl Stephen Sandri (born 11 July 1983) is an Italian-Australian cricket coach and former player. He represented Italy from 2012 to 2017 and also played a single season with the Sydney Thunder. He is an all-rounder who bats right-handed and bowl ...

. With the bat, he scored 137 runs at an average of 17.12, with a high score of 44. Italy finished the tournament in tenth place and therefore missed out on qualification for the 2012 World Twenty in Sri Lanka. In April 2013, he was selected in Italy's fourteen man squad for the World Cricket League Division Three in Bermuda. In September 2017, he scored the most runs in the

2017 ICC World Cricket League Division Five The 2017 ICC World Cricket League Division Five was an international cricket tournament that took place in Benoni, South Africa during September 2017. It formed part of the 2017–19 cycle of the World Cricket League (WCL) which determines th ...

tournament, with a total of 308 runs in four matches.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Crowley, Damian 1989 births Living people Cricketers from Cape Town Italian cricketers South African cricketers South African people of Italian descent Italian cricket captains Wicket-keepers