Cricket a Surprise Hit in the Inner City

It’s when standing between the wickets that Ruben Campos, a 15-year-old from Compton, finds a bit of inner peace. You’ve got to be patient up there, he says, and keep a steely focus.

“Life is a heck of a lot like cricket,” Ruben said of his newfound favorite pastime.

Cricket? Few Americans have played it, and almost nobody has even heard of it in Compton, Ruben said.

“Waiting to bat in cricket is like being on the street when a drive-by happens,” he said. “You can’t afford to take your eye off the ball in cricket--that ball is hard, man--and when it bounces it can go anywhere, just like a bullet.”

Ruben is a member of the Compton Cricket Club, a team of teenagers from inner-city neighborhoods and men who are either homeless or live in downtown L.A.’s Justiceville, a transitional living campus made up of small geodesic domes.

On Thursday afternoon, on a manicured field at Woodley Park, the 10 kids from Compton and their five adult teammates played a match against the Lord’s Taverners, which includes some of the most famous British players in the sport’s recent history.

The team tours internationally to raise money for needy children and to help fund urban cricket programs. It consists mostly of retired professional players 40 or older.

Those players include Roland Butcher, who in the early 1970s became the first black man to play on the English national team and was a top-flight professional for 20 years. And Mike Denness, the former captain of the English national team. And John Emburey, one of the greatest bowlers--cricket’s equivalent to a baseball pitcher--in English national team history.

On the field Thursday were 10 former national team players and three former captains.

In England, and throughout much of the world, they remain stars, said Katy Haber, a British-born Hollywood producer who helped put the match together.

“Here,” Butcher said, “nobody really knows who we are, which is fine.”

The Lord’s Taverners looked regal in their white trousers, wool cardigans and cricket caps, and they played with a sprightly, lighthearted energy. Some said they were absolutely charmed by the way the kids from Compton had embraced the game.

“These guys, they may need to learn some more about the game, but their enthusiasm? It extends a mile,” said John Snow, a former national team captain.

For two hours they played, the Taverners giving tips and encouragement to Ruben and his teammates, including Patrick Reynolds, 38, who is homeless but said he plays cricket three to four times a week on a rock-strewn field behind a Compton school.

When it was Reynolds’ turn to bat, he pulled his black cap down low and launched the cricket ball in a high arch beyond the reach of a Taverner.

“We’re a ragtag collection of guys from the streets,” said Ted Hayes, a dreadlocked, homeless activist who first played cricket four years ago when invited by Haber, a dome village volunteer, to play in a match with the Beverly Hills Cricket Team.

“It didn’t take me long to see this was a special sport and that I could use it to help the homeless and reach kids who live in the ‘hood,” said Hayes, who serves as the Compton club’s coach. “The etiquette, the history and respect. It’s competitive but nonviolent. I think the way you have to play this sport teaches the people I want to help how to live better.”

Ruben agreed, saying that when he and one of his best friends first saw cricket, they found it odd. “I told myself, ‘What the heck are those guys doing running around like that?’ It looked kind of like baseball, and I thought it was gonna be kinda boring, but it’s one of the best things in my life. Something I can feel proud for doing.”

Ruben should feel proud. On this day, after all, his team won by 16 runs.

The Lord’s Taverners will put on a charity match at Woodley Cricket Field on Sunday at 11 a.m. against a team of celebrities expected to include Patrick Stewart, John Lydon and Sir Tim Rice.