Captain Madsen "Quietly Confident" Ahead Of 2026 Campaign

“What an amazing experience to go to a cricket World Cup and to be able to be on the world stage like that. It was a huge honour and I was extremely proud to represent Italy. As you say, we’re not known as a cricketing nation, but it was a great opportunity to show the world what we can do and how we want to grow the game in Italy going forward. Obviously, it didn’t go exactly to plan for me personally. It was only three or four overs in when I picked up the injury. But as an experience as a group of players, it was fantastic. We really embraced it; we played some good cricket throughout the competition, and we showed what we can do and what we can achieve. That was really pleasing.”

Coming onto Derbyshire, Madsen emphasised that the mood within the Derbyshire squad is a very positive one ahead of a season that certainly has huge potential for Mickey Arthur’s side:

“The mood probably reflects that. It gave us a lot of confidence as a group, with the way we performed last year. We were far more consistent in red ball cricket. We were still a bit off it with white ball cricket, but we’ve made some good overseas signings that are going to assist us with those performances. Certainly in red ball cricket, and with the signings that we’ve made to strengthen lour squad, it bodes well. We’re quietly confident in what we are going to achieve as a team this year.”