Cricketers in the hood
Ian Thornton, in the Guardian , writes about the Compton Cricket Club which hails from one of the most deprived areas of Los Angeles and counts ex-gang members and even officers from the LAPD among its ranks.
Siddhartha Talya
25-Feb-2013
Ian Thornton, in the Guardian, writes about the Compton Cricket Club which hails from one of the most deprived areas of Los Angeles and counts ex-gang members and even officers from the LAPD among its ranks.
The story of the Compton cricket club is a fascinating tale, and one the club hopes to tell soon through a book and a film. The story started when British film producer Katy Haber moved to Los Angeles in the early 70s to work with Sam Peckinpah. Haber counts Straw Dogs with Peckinpah and Blade Runner with Ridley Scott among her numerous production credits. In 1995, she founded the Compton cricket club's forerunners, the LA Krickets, with her friend Ted Hayes. The Krickets were a group of homeless young men, skirting the edges of crime and all that crime brings. Hayes is a famed LA social activist who started the Dome Village homeless community in the city's downtown core, and whose primary address at one point was Marvin Gaye's back garden.
In the same newspaper, Barney Ronay writes of the experience of watching The Titans of Cricket event at the O2 arena in London which involved several big names in the game.
Siddhartha Talya is a senior sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo