The Isle of Man’s women’s cricket team will make their debut at the ICC World Cup qualifiers in Italy this weekend.

The 14-strong squad head to Rome on Friday to take part in Europe Division Two of the competition.

The Manx, who sit 35th in the world T20 rankings, will play against Jersey, Italy, Sweden, Germany and Spain in the tournament that runs from Sunday until next Thursday.

The top two will advance to the main Europe qualifier, where they will compete with Ireland and Netherlands for two spots in the global qualifiers.

A game against the hosts kicks off the islanders’ tournament on Sunday afternoon, before a match against Sweden on Monday morning.

Next up is two games against Spain and Jersey on Wednesday, before they round out their campaign with a game against Germany on Thursday afternoon.

When it was announced that the squad was going to enter the tournament in January, an Isle of Man Cricket spokesperson said: ‘This acknowledges the significant improvements made by the women’s national team since playing their first T20 international in November 2022 in Spain and the significant growth in the women’s domestic game in the island since the first soft ball cricket festivals back in 2019.’

Isle of Man squad: Lucy Barnett, Kim Carney, Ellan Cleator, Clare Crowe, Georgie Ford, Sam Hassall, Caitlin Henery, Jo Hicks, Lola Hornby-Wheeler, Dani Murphy, Rachel Overman, Catherine Perry, Alanya Thorpe and Bekkie Webster.

Streaming and scoring is available online at http://www.icc-cricket.com/