Straight outta Compton – from Bullets & Guns to Bats,Balls & Stumps !
Back in the late 1800’s The “Gentlemen of Philadelphia” team was one of the strongest in the world, and included American cricket great John Bart King. When the Australian Test team toured the USA it was beaten by an innings on two separate occasions, in 1893 and 1896 by “The Gentlemen of Philadelphia.”
Now an American cricket team, called the Compton Cricket Club aka “the Homiez and the Popz”, is finally touring Australia. This time though, despite losing the Ashes to England, the Australians are in no danger of losing to the American team.
The “Homiez & the Popz” are from the same Compton made famous by NWA, Tupac, Dr Dre,Ice Cube, Snoop Dogg & other rappers, and associated with gang warfare and violence. On the other hand its where tennis greats Venus and Serena Willams came from. The Compton Cricket Club ,comprised of Latino and African American ex-gang members and homeless men, has been promoting cricket as an alternative path to gang affiliation, crime and jail.
The idea was started as the LA Krickets in 1995,comprised of homeless men by cricket pioneer David Sentence, and included homeless activist Ted Hayes. Sentence saw it as an opportunity to create cricket’s own Harlem Globetrotters-type ambassadors of the game. California Cricket legend Leo Magnus and other members of the Southern California Cricket Association soon joined the Los Angeles Krickets coaching staff .
The following year Ted Hayes then established a team in Compton of mainly ex gang members and he and Katy Haber have continued as the key figures today, and the team includes brothers Theo (team Captain) and Isaac Hayes, sons of Ted. The LA Krickets first toured England in 1995 and returned in 1997, 1999 and 2001.The story attracted the attention of Hollywood and a movie was proposed.The movie was never made, but might be a film that could ignite a cricket fire of its own in the US.
Along the way,as often repeated in cricket all across the USA it became difficult for egos to co-exist and David Sentance is no longer connected with the Club, but still promotes the game in the inner city. Just recently he got 50 Latino and African American kids to turn up in Watts to learn cricket. American College Cricket through the USC Trojans Cricket team will work with Sentance on this project.
In the years since 2001 the “Homiez & the Popz” receded from the limelight but with this Australian tour have happily got back into the news. Whilst it has not so far done so, hopefullly the Compton Cricket Club can grow from a novelty into a broader movement.
From a purely cricket development viewpoint, the team demonstrates another option for cricket development in the USA in the inner-cities, another option so far left untouched by the official cricket admistration.
12 Feb 2011, 12:29 pm
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