Homeless Men Spread the Gospel of Cricket

It sounds like a Disney film already: homeless cricket players from Los Angeles coaching Compton gangsters for the big match against a team from Beverly Hills.

But this is a true story.

And never mind the movie deal--it’s still under negotiation.

Led by veteran activist and cricket player Ted Hayes, a group of L.A.-based homeless men is spreading the gospel of cricket--with its precepts of respect and good sportsmanship--to a band of well-meaning but troubled youngsters from Compton.

Things aren’t all rosy out on the practice field, of course. The streetwise kids, 17 of them between the ages of 10 and 17, are having troubles shaking off the negative influences that surround them. Just last weekend, a confrontation with a nearby gang nearly erupted into a brawl over graffiti rights.

Right away, the moral is apparent.

“You gotta respect people on and off the field,” Ruben Campos, 13, said as he prepared for practice Tuesday at Compton’s Willowbrook Middle School. “You earn respect.”

Hayes introduced the game to Compton last summer after returning from a tournament on England’s cricket fields. There, he says, he learned the power of the centuries-old sport to bridge cultural differences.

Indeed, all hopes are on that aspect of the sport Saturday, when the Beverly Hills Cricket Club comes to play the Compton Aztecs at Willowbrook. But already part of the cultural gap has been bridged because the Beverly Hills club has donated much of the Aztecs’ equipment.

The story has plenty of subplots, too. One involves Hayes working with the Compton school board and City Council to build a world-class cricket stadium in the city. But so far it’s just a dream, and the immediate concerns are for money to buy more equipment.

“We’re doing it out of our own pockets,” Hayes said. “People send us money here and there.”