Until now he has always played cricket for the Blue Mountains, but all that is about to change for Hazelbrook’s Tobi Blefari as he prepares to pad up in Italy this month.
The Year 11 student has been invited by the Italian cricket team to play with Gallicano in the National League this season. If all goes well he could end up playing for the Italian Under 17s this year and Under 19s next year in the European Championships thanks to holding citizenship courtesy of his father’s Italian heritage.
Tobi’s path to the international sporting stage materialised after his mum Sally overheard an interview with the President of the Italian Cricket Federation while her son was playing a representative match.
She later emailed the president asking if Tobi could meet the Italian players — the rest is history as Tobi prepares to join his European counterparts.
The young batsman has spent most of his sporting days playing for Hazelbrook Cricket Club and said he is “pretty excited” about the international opportunity.
He won’t be the only Australian playing in Italy in the squad however — their captain Joe Scuderi played for both Queensland and South Australia and another Australian, Troy Crossland, plays in the national side.
Italy is ranked 27th in the world and is in division one of the European Championships.