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Perhaps even more than the average side, they may be in need of a bit of divine intervention. But at least the Vatican's first-ever cricket team will know they have the pope's blessing when they arrive in England for their maiden tour later this week.
The priests and seminarians of the St Peter's cricket club were received in a private audience by Pope Francis in the Vatican on Tuesday, just 10 days before they are due to face a Church of England XI near Canterbury cathedral.
The players posed for a photograph with the Argentinean pontiff holding a cricket bat between his knees. Francis is a keen football fan, but it is not known whether he also nurtures a secret appreciation for the bat and ball.
The unprecedented Light of Faith tour begins on Friday and includes several warm-up matches including one on Saturday against the British army chaplains at Aldershot, and another, next Wednesday, against the Royal Household at Windsor.
But the undisputed focal point of the eight days will come on 19 September, when St Peter's will take on the CoE XI for an ecumenical Twenty20 match. The captain of the Anglican side, the Rev Jez Barnes, vicar of St Stephen's, Twickenham, played first-class cricket for Oxford University in the late 1990s.
"Realistically, we are rank underdogs with a very outside chance, but that's okay," said the Rev Dr Eamonn O'Higgins, spiritual director and manager of the Vatican club, in remarks published on the Pontifical Council for Culture website.
"What we hope for, above all, is a good match. On paper, the Anglican XI has much greater experience and match practice as individuals. That is not surprising in England, the home of cricket. We are a competent side, nothing more. None of the Vatican XI has played first class cricket."
Father Tony Currer, captain of the Vatican side, is its only Englishman, according to a team list. Alongside him are seven Indians, two Sri Lankans and one Pakistani, aged between 24 and 41.
"Win or lose, the first cricket match in history between the Vatican and the Church of England will be an event to remember and to build on," said O'Higgins.
The pontifical council for culture stresses the tour is heavily spiritual in its nature, with players "praying at various holy shrines together with our ecumenical partners and raising funds for the Global Freedom Network, which fights against modern slavery and human trafficking."
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