Miah Bappy and other Bengalis have to play cricket outside the town of Monfalcone

Under the scorching sun on Italy’s Adriatic coast, a group of friends from Bangladesh are practising their cricket skills on a small patch of concrete.
They are playing on the outskirts of Monfalcone, close to Trieste airport, because they have in effect been banned by the mayor from playing in the town itself.
They say those who try can face fines of up to €100 (£84).
“If we were playing inside Monfalcone, the police would have already got here to stop us,” says team captain Miah Bappy.
He points to a group of Bengali teenagers who got “caught” playing their national sport at the local park. Unaware they were being filmed by security cameras, their game was broken up by a police patrol who gave them a fine.
“They say cricket is not for Italy. But I’ll tell you the truth: it’s because we are foreigners,” Miah says.
The ban on cricket has come to symbolise the deep-seated tensions that are flaring up in Monfalcone.
The town has an ethnic make-up unique in Italy: of a population of just over 30,000, nearly a third are foreigners. Most of them are Bangladeshi Muslims who began to arrive in the late 1990s to build giant cruise-ships.
As a consequence the cultural essence of Monfalcone is in danger, according to mayor Anna Maria Cisint, who belongs to the far-right League party.
She swept to power on the back of anti-immigration sentiment – and has gone on a mission to “protect” her town and defend Christian values.

“Our history is being erased,” she tells me. “It’s like it doesn’t matter anymore. Everything is changing for the worse.”
In Monfalcone, Italians in Western clothes mingle with Bangladeshis wearing shalwar kameez and hijabs. There are Bangladeshi restaurants and halal shops, and a network of cycle paths mostly used by the South Asian community.
In her two terms in office, Ms Cisint has removed the benches in the town square where Bangladeshis used to sit and railed against what Muslim women wear at the beach.
“There’s a very strong process of Islamic fundamentalism here,” she says. “A culture where women are treated very badly and oppressed by men.”
When it comes to her ban on cricket, the mayor claims there is no space or money to build a new pitch and says cricket balls pose a danger.
She told the BBC she refuses to grant the Bangladeshis the privilege to play their national sport – and claims they offer “nothing in return”.
“They’ve given nothing to this city, to our community. Zero,” she says. “They are free to go and play cricket anywhere else… outside of Monfalcone.”