25-01-11, 07:56 PM
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A lovely heart-warming story
LA cricket club that brings discipline to its gang-threatened players | The Sun |Features
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WITH the players covered in tattoos and blinging jewellery while spouting street slang, some would say it's just not cricket.
One of them is on parole after a four-year prison stretch and they lost a team-mate two years ago to a drive-by shooting.
This unlikely bunch make up Compton Cricket Club - born from the mean streets of LA's most dangerous neighbourhood.
It is a million miles from the green fields of rural England and the likes of swashbuckling cricket legend Denis Compton.
Compton's notorious reputation became known around the world after bad-boy rappers NWA released hit album Straight Outta Compton in 1988.
Just three years ago the FBI ranked it the 15th most dangerous place in the US. It is under gang rule and covered in their graffiti.
Two of the original Compton Cricket Club - also known as The Homies and The Popz - have died. But that is a decent survival rate for around here.
On Saturday they fly to Australia - the first all American-born side to tour Down Under.
The team was set up by British film producer Katy Haber and LA charity worker Ted Hayes to give kids at Compton High School an alternative to roaming the violent streets.
The Sun joined the team at their last training session before they head to Oz for the two-week tour - apart from Richard Salgado, 28.
The tattooed ex-con said: "I can't go to Australia because I'm on parole. I spent four years in jail. I can't leave the country - I can't even leave the state.
"There's a lot of crime in Compton. It was tough growing up there. There are a lot of gangs and I got caught up in that.
"But if it hadn't been for cricket I would have been in a lot more trouble. If you are busy playing cricket, you don't have time to run with gangs."
Player-coach Ted, 59, said: "We caught these guys in their teens. At that age in Compton they can get into the hardcore gang stuff. The gang situation is like a magnet - it draws them in.
"We have lost a couple. Some have gone back to the streets and two have been killed. We have not only taught them the sport but also the etiquette. Other sports have rules and regulations but there is a superior level of respect in cricket.
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"It has a civilising quality. That's what makes it the king of sports."
It's so civilising that the team have even rubbed shoulders with Prince Edward. Ted met him when he was in LA and the prince invited him to come by if the team, which formed in 1996, were ever in England.
So on their first tour of England in 1997 - they also came over in 1999 and 2001 - they popped into Buckingham Palace for tea with the prince. Ted said: "When I met Eddie I just gave him a hug and said, 'What's up homie?'."
Ted's sons Isaac and Theo play in the team - and also make up a hip-hop duo who rap about the sport. The lyrics include:
The respect of cricket etiquette is how we're hanging.
Stick it out for the long haul, Make a phone call To the President It's evident I represent my hood with this cricket ball.
Isaac said: "It's been hard keeping the team together. Some guys had kids, some guys got shot, some guys got killed and some went to prison.
"We've lost a couple of guys. But that's two guys in more than ten years. As terrible as this sounds, coming from where we do we are blessed in a way that it has only been two.
"Cricket is part of the reason for that. A lot of guys were on a route to destruction and it's given them a focus."
The team now play in the Los Angeles Social Cricket Alliance in Woodley, about 20 minutes from Compton. They take on teams made up of English, Indian, Pakistani and Caribbean expats.
The streets of Compton don't have space for a cricket pitch - but they used to practise on inner-city courts with dustbins for wickets. They are the same streets that claimed the life of Jesse Cazarez - brother of team member Ricardo - when he was just 20 two years ago.
Ricardo, 26, said: "My brother was gunned down in a drive-by shooting over the road from our house in Compton. We heard ten shots. We went outside and our brother was lying on the ground.
"He wasn't the target - that was some people inside. But he was in the wrong place at the wrong time."
Ricardo says of the game that he loves: "You don't argue with the umpire - you have to have discipline and respect, just like life."
Now the team, who are funded by supporters, are set for another adventure.
Co-founder Katy said: "I got an email from someone at Compton Cricket Club in Sussex saying they would like to play us next time we are in England.
"I suggested they came here and played us on our home turf and we'll take them on a tour of Compton - that would be a culture shock for them."
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