Michael Gino Raso (born 7 July 1980) is an Italian

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...

er of Australian origin. He made his debut for the Italian national side at the 2010 European Championship. Born to Italian parents, Raso played club cricket in

Far North Queensland Far North Queensland (FNQ) is the northernmost part of the Australian state of Queensland. Its largest city is Cairns and it is dominated geographically by Cape York Peninsula, which stretches north to the Torres Strait, and west to the Gulf C ...

from an early age, and before debuting for Italy also spent several seasons for English and Scottish club sides during the Australian off-season. At his debut tournament for Italy, the 2010 European Championship in

Jersey Jersey ( , ; nrf, Jèrri, label=Jèrriais ), officially the Bailiwick of Jersey (french: Bailliage de Jersey, links=no; Jèrriais: ), is an island country and self-governing Crown Dependencies, Crown Dependency near the coast of north-west F ...

, he topscored for Italy with 138 runs, with a best of 56 against a Netherlands A team. At the 2010 World Cricket League Division Four, which was played in Italy, Raso batted mainly in the lower order. He retained his place for the following year's Division Three tournament in Hong Kong, but his four matches there yielded only 50 runs. Raso made his 20-over debut for Italy at the 2011 European T20 Championship, but after that tournament did not play again for the team until May 2013, at the 2013 WCL Division Three tournament in Bermuda. At the 2013 European T20 Championship, he played every match, with Italy winning the championship to qualify for the 2013 World Twenty20 Qualifier.Miscellaneous matches played by Michael Raso
– CricketArchive. Retrieved 3 May 2015. Raso played six of a possible nine games for Italy, including both the quarter-final against

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and the ninth-place playoff against

Namibia Namibia (, ), officially the Republic of Namibia, is a country in Southern Africa. Its western border is the Atlantic Ocean. It shares land borders with Zambia and Angola to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south and ea ...

. His best performance at the tournament had come in an earlier group-stage match against Namibia, when he topscored with 35

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

from seventh in the batting order. At the 2014 WCL Division Four, Raso's sole half-century came against

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in the third-place playoff. His 52 runs came from only 49 balls, and included a 97-run partnership with

Alessandro Bonora Alessandro Bonora (born 24 May 1978) is a former Italian people, Italian cricketer. Life and cricket career Bonora was born at Bordighera in Liguria region, but grew up in South Africa, where he was educated in Cape Town. While playing club cri ...

, though this was not enough to prevent Italy losing by 35 runs. Raso was also included in Italy's squad for its most recent major tournament, the 2015 European T20 Championship in Jersey.(27 April 2015)
"Europe’s battle for the ICC World Twenty20 Qualifier place takes place in Jersey"
– International Cricket Council. Retrieved 3 May 2015.

References

External links

a
Cricket Archive
a
ESPNcricinfo
{{DEFAULTSORT:Raso, Michael 1980 births Living people Australian cricketers Australian people of Italian descent Italian cricketers Australian expatriate sportspeople in Italy