South-Central Proves a Jolly Good Spot for Cricket Film

Producers of a British TV documentary on “Cricket in the Americas” hardly expected to find themselves on location on an asphalt basketball court at a South-Central Los Angeles school.

But there they were Wednesday, at Sheenway School and Culture Center, a tiny private institution where a small but devoted cadre of cricket enthusiasts has bloomed under the coaching of Leo Magnus.

Twice a week, 17 students don their regulation whites--sweatpants and long-sleeved T-shirts--and gather to hone their skills at batting, bowling (the equivalent of pitching) and wicket keeping.

“The great thing about it is that they’re so enthusiastic. They love it,” said Mustafa Khan, a volunteer who introduced the sport to the school a year ago.

Khan was on the Homies and Popz cricket team--inner-city youths and homeless men from the Dome Village housing complex near downtown--that went on a four-match tour of England in 1995. His exposure to cricket so deeply affected him that he decided he had to share the game with his students.

Khan says the game’s genteel ways--players cannot so much as glare at an umpire--can impart valuable lessons to inner-city kids.

“All cricketers are polite, well-mannered; that’s something that’s missing from American society. This is a game of patience,” he said, noting that cricket matches can stretch six or seven hours--sometimes days. “In this society they have fast food, video games. Everything moves fast. But this game gives you a chance to slow down.”

Khan recruited Magnus, who has played and coached at the international level and who leads the Homies and Popz, about five months ago. “One of the ambitions, as we go along, [is to] break them into two teams and teach them actual match play,” said Magnus, a native of Jamaica. “Our next ambition is to challenge other schools.”

They won’t have many to choose from. Sheenway is one of only a handful of schools in the state that plays cricket.

That’s what made it an attractive subject for the company commissioned by the International Cricket Council to film a series of half-hour specials on cricket globally. Producer Rhodri Evans said Sheenway’s cramped playground and limited equipment will provide a contrast to the lawns of the Beverly Hills Cricket Club, where the crew also filmed a segment.