Pioneering Burns Delivers For Italy

The decision by Burns a few years ago to lend a hand to Italy's grand dreams of qualifying for a World Cup paid off in remarkable fashion earlier this month, with Italy one of the two teams from Europe to win a spot in next year's ICC T20 World Cup in India, the first time Italy has qualified for a cricket World Cup.

Burns, 35, captained the squad after playing a significant role behind the scenes in identifying coaching and playing staff during the qualifying campaign, including Brisbane-based coach John Davison who captained Canada and played in the 2003, 2007 and 2011 World Cups.

His achievement meant he joined illustrious company such as fellow Queenslanders Bill Brown, Allan Border, Greg Chappell, Kepler Wessels, Ian Healy, Shane Watson and Jodie Purves who have captained an international cricket team in their career.

Reinforcing the Queensland connection, Burns joined Far North Queensland product Joe Scuderi as a captain of Italy. Ingham born Scuderi, who had a lengthy first class career with South Australia and in English county cricket, also captained and coached Italy between 2008 and 2016.

Burns qualified for Italy through his grandparents whose roots were in Calabria, in southern Italy. His grandfather was a prisoner-of-war in North Africa during the World War II and the family relocated to Townsville in Queensland as part of the wider Italian diaspora following the tumult of the war.

Burns, who played 23 Tests for Australia and scored four centuries, spoke candidly to media after the World Cup qualification about the significance of the team's achievement.

"A lot of our grandparents left Italy after World War II, so it's very much a shared story to come together and to represent past generations," he said.

"I know my grandparents would be very proud, and I know mum and dad have been following the games really closely. There are Italians dispersed all over the world, and I hope this team is a beacon for Italians everywhere."

A stalwart for Northern Suburbs, Burns played 112 first class games for Queensland, scoring 7361 runs at 39.36 as well 66 one-day games for the Bulls and 59 BBL matches for the Brisbane Heat. He played six ODIs for Australia and to date has played eight T20 Internationals for Italy with a highlight his 108 not out against Romania last year.

Cricinfo has detailed the path to the World Cup that Italy has followed at: https://www.espncricinfo.com/story/how-italy-made-it-to-the-2026-t20-world-cup-1496101