Italian City Bans Cricket In Parks After Mishap With Two-Year Old

An unfortunate incident has compelled an Italian city to ban cricket in parks. The city took the step after a two-year-old boy was struck by a ball while he was on the balcony of his home. According to media reports, the harsh decision is seen as a huge blow to the cricket-loving Afghan and Pakistani migrants in the city.

According to English news outlet BCCI, the mayor of Bolzano in northern Italy banned the game in the city’s parks after the ball struck the boy in the head. But fortunately, the child, who was on the family’s balcony at the time, recovered from the concussion. He was about 100 metres away from the place where the game was being played.

Meanwhile, due to the mishap, Bolzano is now restricting cricket to tennis courts and a baseball field. Confirming the developments,  Renzo Caramaschi, mayor of the city, revealed that the ban was prompted by an email he had received from the boy’s parents about the cricket ball having hit their son.

“We will soon make an assessment with representatives of the Pakistani community,” Caramaschi was quoted as saying.

The game is not very much popular among the local Italians but the small Afghan and Pakistani migrant communities enjoying playing the game. In October 2015, the regional Alto Adige website reported that Bolzano was inhabited by 900 Pakistanis, with another 3,000 in the whole region. The figures for Afghans were 100 and 300, respectively.

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In the past too, an Italian city had banned the game. Italian news outlet  Corriere della Sera has reported that Brescia, another northern Italian city, banned the game in public spaces in 2009.

 

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