TRYING TO STUMP THE STARS ABROAD : Burbank’s Neil Lashkari and Teammates on Longshot U.S. Cricket Team Journey to Europe in Bid to Qualify for 1991 World Cup

Considering the United States’ apathy toward cricket--a sport so ignored it hasn’t even had a drug scandal in this country--nobody should be surprised to learn that not one player on the U.S. national team was born in the U.S.A.

Neil Lashkari of Burbank, however, came close.

Born 31 years ago in Leeds, England, Lashkari moved with his family to Southern California when he was only 6 months old. His U.S. upbringing gives him the distinction of being the only American-bred player on the national team, which is taking part in the World Cup qualifying tournament this month in the Netherlands.

The United States, a third-rate cricket power, is one of 19 teams entered in the qualifier, called the “mini” World Cup. Only the winner--Zimbabwe is considered the favorite--will be allowed to play in the big tournament next year in Australia, where England, India and the West Indies will be among the nine cricket superpowers trading googleys (a ball delivered by a bowler that appears to be going to break one way but breaks the other way when it hits the ground). The United States has never qualified for the quadrennial event.

U.S. cricket is played primarily on the East Coast--the governing body of the sport, the U.S. Cricket Assn., is in Philadelphia--and the U.S. national team is made up almost entirely of West Indians from Eastern amateur teams. Only two California players were picked: Lashkari and bowler Terry Mills, a 27-year-old Trinidad native who lives in Inglewood.

John Reid is the most recent American-born player to have made a U.S. national team. Reid played on the 1982 squad and might have made this year’s team had he not looked terrible during tryouts. “In baseball terms, I went oh for four,” says Reid, 32, who lives in Glendale.

That the Valley area produced both Reid and Lashkari is due more to genetics than geography. Their foreign-born fathers were international cricketers who moved to L.A. in the late ‘50s. Anil Lashkari, who played for India’s national teams, and Jim Reid, an English pro, met while playing cricket at Griffith Park and became best friends. Jim, a 59-year-old real estate appraiser, is also a former president of the U.S. Cricket Assn.

The two boys “grew up together,” John says. “We’re like brothers.” It was only natural for them to play cricket. “Neil’s father coached him and my father coached me and we had the desire” is John’s explanation for their development into international cricket players instead of mall rats.

“Neil and I are extremely unique,” Reid says, because Americans “don’t usually progress beyond league level.”

Reid and Lashkari also improved their cricket skills by playing in England during summer vacations from Valley College. Both dreamed of eventually playing professionally, but reality woke them up, Lashkari explains, “when we found out it wasn’t our life style.”

“There’s no glamour in it,” Reid says. “Eight guys in a flat. Living out of a suitcase. I thought it would be pretty posh, but it was just the opposite.”

“Unless you’re a top pro,” Lashkari says, “there’s just no money in cricket.”

“Both of us felt we could do better back home,” adds Reid, who, along with Lashkari, became a real estate appraiser like Jim Reid.

Neil and John are standing on the roped-off cricket field at Sepulveda Basin. Even though it has no Little League or high school cricket programs, the Valley is hardly a cricket wasteland. The Southern California Cricket Assn. plays a competitive nine-month season at Sepulveda Basin, and the field, Reid says, is considered the best in the country.

A cricket field has no set dimensions; it may be oval or circular but must be limited to a maximum of 75 yards in any direction from its center. At Sepulveda Basin, in the center of the field, is a square of manicured grass, about 25 yards on each side, with wicket creases limed into each corner. Thus the pitch--a strip 66 feet long and 10 feet wide--can be rotated when each side of the square becomes worn.

Reid and Lashkari, who play for University Cricket Club, are at the basin to practice. Only games are played on the field, so a backstop is set up and artificial turf is rolled out to give the bowler an even surface off which to bounce the ball. About a dozen players participate in the practice. Bowlers take turns bowling and batters take a few licks. Several players warm up doing the cricket version of pepper.

A left-handed batter, Lashkari is trying to work on his timing before he departs the Netherlands. Reid provides a scouting report on him. “Neil is very sound defensively,” Reid says, meaning that he’s adept at protecting the wicket with his bat. “He gets in line and builds his innings.” Translation: Lashkari steps into the ball and scores a lot of runs.

Lashkari stands in front of the wicket wearing thick leg pads and a face mask. It becomes obvious why he needs protection. Bowlers take a running start and uncork the hard leather ball from some 22 yards away. A spinning overhand can come in at 100 m.p.h., hitting the turf at the batter’s feet and skipping unpredictably like a one-hop smash to third base.

Lashkari takes about 30 swings, protecting the stumps--each time. When Lashkari finishes, sweat trickles off his brow.

“Cricket is a little harder to play than baseball because you have to hit the ball off the bounce 99% of the time,” Lashkari says.

Lashkari played baseball at Burbank High and admits that he “probably should have stayed with” the sport. His friends, he says, never teased him about cricket and “were quite intrigued by it.” Occasionally, his friends would watch him play but they had difficulty understanding the odd terminology and rules.

Indeed, cricket is an alien experience for the uninitiated. A game at the basin over Memorial Day weekend seems to proceed in slow motion, with players doing a lot of standing around on the field in their all-white uniforms. A problem Americans have with cricket: A game lasts all day, at least. And spectators have to sit or stand some 100 yards from the square, making it very difficult to pick up the ball as it is bowled.

“Explaining the game to someone is hard,” Lashkari says. “The best way is to show how it’s played.”

In brief, it is a contest played between two teams of 11 players each. The object of the game is to score runs when at bat and to put out, or dismiss, the opposing batsmen when in the field. Each side has two innings, normally taken alternately.

Matches are played for a predetermined length of time, and often two days or more are required to finish. (A team at bat might accumulate as many as 300 to 400 runs before all of its players are retired.)

Lashkari figures he can play competitively for an additional 10 years. His father, a 55-year-old chemical engineer, played into his 40s and even was playing captain of the ’79 U.S. national team. That team was also notable for having Jim Reid as manager and Neil and John as players. But it didn’t emerge from the qualifier, a fate that likely will befall the current squad.

“We’ve been mentioned as one of six teams that could possibly do well,” says Lashkari, playing on his fourth U.S. national team. “Personally, I think our chances are average.”