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The Cowboys In LA Gallery

(May 1999)

There are 5 pages in this gallery. This is page 4.

~ The Cowboys In LA Gallery Contents ~
{#1 The Compton Ashes (Photographs)}{#2 The Homies At Home (Photographs)}{#3 DVCC (Photographs)}
{#4 Cricket Could Save Your Life (Words)}{#5 Map}

#4 Cricket Could Save Your Life

By Will Simpson
Published in The Big Issue - South West. October 9-15 2000 NO.407.

Los Angeles is one of the toughest places on earth.
So why, among the gangs, guns and gangster rap, are
homeless people turning to cricket?

"COMPTON!"

"EASTON!"

"COWBOYS!"

"HOMIES!"

"COMPTON!"

"EASTON!"

"COMPTON!"

"EASTON!"

Two groups of young men from opposite sides of the Atlantic are chanting the names of their respective inner city districts. We're in downtown Los Angeles, the city with the largest homelessness problem in America in a centre for the transitional homeless called the Dome Village. The two sets of men have just finished a cricket match. No one is quite sure what is happening here but it s nothing if not an extraordinary scene.

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One set of men is from Bristol. They are the Easton Cowboys Cricket team. You might recall reading about the footballing end of their operation in the Big Issue South West last year when they became the first Western side to tour the Zapatista held areas of Mexico.

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And the others? They are a group of inner city youths and homeless men called the Compton Homies. The finest and in fact only cricket side from one the most notorious districts in the world. A neighbourhood known for it's gangs, guns and gangster rap, in that order. But cricket? How the fuck did this most genteel of English games end up being played here of all places? The answer stands at the front, leading the cheering, grinning and giving bear hugs to the emotional Cowboys. At 6 ft 4, resplendent in his slightly greying dreads and shades, Ted Hayes oozes charisma.

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Two days earlier and Ted is explaining how all this came to pass at his office at the Dome Village. One half street politician to sporting evangelist, he is a fascinating mix, with the moral certainty you expect from an American but with a definite dash of English gent in there too. Ted knew nothing about cricket until he was asked to make up the numbers for an English ex pat side from Beverley Hills (his partner Katy Haber, works in the film industry). "I had heard the phrase 'this or that is not cricket', but the word was not part of my vocabulary other than as a grasshopper."

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Ted returned bitten by the cricketing bug and initially formed a team from the homeless men at The Dome Village called The Justiceville Krickets. The next step was to take his enthusiasm to the inner cities. "A friend of mine suggested that I try Compton first. He knew people who could get the word through the school systems. And that is what we did - we held cricket workshops and from there we drew the core of what we now call the Homies."

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The team that lines up against the Cowboys the next day in a two day test match are a mixed bunch - divided between Latino and black kids, mostly around school age and older homeless men from the Dome Village. There's still a surreal edge to proceedings. How on Earth does a limey game for snobs appeal to a street sussed activist like this and to a bunch of kids who look as if they'd be more at home slam dunkin' round their local block basketball court? "It's the etiquette, the discipline," Ted beams. "The challenge of going through a rites of passage while playing the game. Cricket if played properly can improve your life and extend your life. It can keep you out of trouble and make you a better citizen. Cricket can literally save your life."

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In Ted's eyes cricket offers a return to the old fashioned values of restraint, honour and discipline that are sadly lacking in other American sports. The young Homies are in his own words "mainly taggers". Some have actual gang experience, others were going down that road.

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Others like Chester Ward (32) had just got out of jail for drug offences when they were introduced to Ted and cricket. "I didn't even know what cricket was. But I started enjoying it. I like the exercise and the running. It also gives me a chance to work with the younger Homies. You see them hanging out in on the streets of Compton the way I used to do. I talk to them and tell them to stay focussed so they won t end up in jail like me."

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Ricardo Silgado, at 18, one of those younger Homies leans over and pitches in his two pen'orth about their English visitors. "Hey, they're real good, they've got some good bowlers." Ricardo got involved through one of the coaching clinics at his school. "I like this more than baseball, it's more fun, more exciting. A little bit slower, but more fun. Sometimes in Compton when we're practising they just look at us like we're weird or something. But some people come and cheer for us. They know we re doing something good. We're not out there on the streets no more."

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Meanwhile back at the Dome Village, the first day's play complete Ted outlines his twin objectives. He has a dream of seeing cricket replace baseball as America's premier bat and ball sport. But is it realistic for an impatient lot like the Americans to fall for a game that even the most patriotic Englishman would admit gets a bit tedious at times? "Absolutely," he replies without hesitation. "Given the media, the movie that is being made about us and the meteoric rise of the Homies. The key is corporate sponsorship, PR and certain investment. Yeah, ten, fifteen years easy! We're going to be attractive to TV because cricket is so much more of a global market. After every over you can have a commercial or goodwill message from a non profit making organisation to talk about social issues."

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Which feeds into Ted's other dream to expand the Dome Village into other cities and the adoption of a federal plan to house all the nation's street homeless within ten years. The Village itself he founded back in 1993. Set in the heart of downtown LA right under the nose of corporate America it's has accommodation for 24 people in 20 omni-sphered domes. Eight are community use and feature a kitchen, office, community room and computer centre and other eight are partitioned off so residents have their own living space. If what the residents say is anything to go by then it leaves LA s other provision for the homeless looking distinctly shabby.

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Elzie Alexander has been living here for just five weeks. He is an aspiring stand up comedian who came down to LA from Ohio to further his career but found himself on the streets. In between trying out his act on the Cowboys he has nothing but praise for Ted's concept: "It's the best. They are genuinely concerned about helping you succeed in whatever you endeavour. Where as a typical homeless organisation has no interest in you becoming anything but homeless. They get a government subsidy for supplying services so it s in their interests to keep people in a state of homelessness."

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"Here they give you the basics - a mailing address, a contact telephone number, access to the Internet if you're a computer person, shower facilities. They may seem like simple things. But you could have a PhD yet if you're not clean you can't get a job at Burger King."

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The future for LA's estimated 220,000 street homeless hangs in the balance. Some districts of the city are enforcing a zero tolerance policy, whereas those on the streets are simply turfed out in some districts but not in others. The result is ghettoisation, with the epicentre being the heart of downtown LA itself. "Laws are being enforced against people who are street homeless, codes of health and safety which means nine times out of ten they will be arrested," says Ted. What you see there is America imploding in on itself."

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That is the bad news. But for the Easton Cowboys the trip has been an enormous success, the match ended in a draw. Ted presents them with a pair of graffiti-ed wicket keeper pads, captain Duncan Brewood seems overwhelmed with emotion and promises are made to invite Compton over to Bristol next year.Then to top it all, Theo and Isaac, two of the Homies top batsmen get up to do their party piece in front of the cheering crowd, their 'Hip hop cricket rap' -

From Bullets to Balls,
From Gats to Bats,
From the streets of concrete to the grass and mats,
That's cricket (that's cricket)
That's cricket (that's cricket)...

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After the flood of emotion has abated Ted promises to take the team on a tour of downtown LA, to the streets where he had been working for a decade and a half. "You won't believe you eyes, I tell you..." he promises.

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He wasn't wrong. The atmosphere in the cars amongst the Cowboys changes from cheery bonhomie to something else entirely. It is a truly sobering sight - street after street of men, women and children, mostly black, sleeping, huddling or just hanging round their shelters - mats in doorways, cardboard boxes and tents. Row upon row of tents which, gives the district the look of some dimly lit inner city Glastonbury. Meanwhile just blocks away are the head offices of some of the richest corporations on Planet Earth. I begin to get a feeling of sickness in the pit of my stomach. Just then a middle aged man on a bicycle rides past us. Spying our convoy and probably taking us for cops he shouts "can someone tell me what the fuck is really happening?"

No one else has put it better.


<<{#3} - Previous Page Next Page - {#5}>>
~ The Cowboys In LA Gallery Contents ~
{#1 The Compton Ashes (Photographs)}{#2 The Homies At Home (Photographs)}{#3 DVCC (Photographs)}
{#4 Cricket Could Save Your Life (Words)}{#5 Map}

Quod Vide
As well as the pages in this gallery there are other pages on this site that contain related photographs and text.

The Homies In The UK Gallery - #1 The Homies In Bristol (Photographs)
The Homies In The UK Gallery - #2 The Homies In Hambledon (Photographs)

For external links related to this gallery go to the LINKS PAGE.
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