Hayes calls alternative kind of shots in gangland (18 Apr 1997)

Friday 18 April 1997

Overseas Cricket: Hayes calls alternative kind of shots in gangland

Steve Bunce reports

IT WAS not the first funeral procession for a victim of gang violence to interrupt play, just the latest addition to a seemingly endless list of boys and men who have died on the streets and playing fields of South Central Los Angeles.

As the cars slowly passed the edge of the grass field, at Willowbrook Middle School, Ted Hayes told his cricket squad to stand still. "Be cool, be cool," he urged. Failing to show respect, even for a dead member of a rival gang, is a potentially fatal mistake in the Willowbrook, Watts and Compton areas of Los Angeles.

"Two weeks ago there was gunfire and we all hit the deck. Man, even before I was on the floor these kids were there. It was just a routine reaction for them," said Hayes, who decided last summer to teach cricket at the school in the gangdominated area.

Next month Hayes will lead his team of students, aged between 11 and 16, to England for a series of matches, a visit to the Houses of Parliament and tea at Buckingham Palace. Hayes, 46, is an activist for the homeless who once ran for mayor and lived for eight years on the streets of Los Angeles in the shanty towns where an estimated 45,000 people sleep each night.

In 1993, Hayes helped create the Dome village, a community of homeless people living on a vacant lot less than a mile from the hellish blocks where thousands of homeless roam. "They are urban nomads and nobody wants to deal with them," warns Hayes as we drive through derelict streets and past sights so wretched as to appear unbelievable.

At Willowbrook Middle School his players prepare by running several laps of the dirt track, their bats, many of which have been carefully constructed, raised high above their heads. As they run Hayes, who has worn white since his first night on the streets back in 1984, leads a chant of "Kriiiiket" every 100 metres. The equipment is worn and basic, the best balls held together by tape and staples.

Hayes took an interest in cricket after friend Katy Haber, a producer on the cult movie Blade Runner, asked him to play for the Beverly Hills club. "I knew nothing, still know nothing, but we got passion and desire and anybody thinking of running had better be sure he can get his butt between the stumps because these kids will take you down," Hayes offers.

As an activist for various causes since the 1960s, Hayes was quick to realise the incongruous potential of cricket in South Central. He coaches three evenings a week in a zone where the body count can reach double figures each week. His players have brutal tales to tell of neighbours, friends or relatives being shot. Some were innocent, others, known on the street as gangstas, were not: all are dead.

"It is not just about publicity, it is about saving lives and we are trying to keep our players from getting killed on the streets or from killing someone. It`s also about a lot more than cricket but the sport is perfect because too many kids out here, especially the black kids, think they are going to be big basketball or football stars but that will not happen to all of them. Cricket is a social sport and sport is about living a life and that is what we try to teach our players," Hayes said.

The finer details of the sport are passed to the squad by Jamaican-born Leo Magnus, who in the Fifties played in the Birmingham leagues. Magnus parks his battered Mercedes Benz under a sign on the school wall that declares: We Accept The Challenge. "It is a challenge. You see, these boys have never seen cricket but they learn fast. There is so much raw talent and that boy is the most gifted bowler I have hever seen. Natural leg-breaks, look at his run," Magnus said. The boy he pointed at was Rafael, just 11, a player since March.

On the uneven field the game opens up. "If Ruben gets the ball he can take out any stump from anywhere. He was a fine baseball player before he turned to cricket and now he is the king of outs. Steve. Well, he just bowls and bowls, don`t leave an inch for a mistake because he will take out all three stumps with a crash," Hayes adds.

"The beauty of this game cricket," Hayes tells his players, "is that with shots like this [he demonstrates a perfectly topedged sweep] the ball can go anywhere." He is right. "If you do that the ball gonna end up in my mitts," claims Sergio, wicketkeeper and former member of KS - Kill Society.

Meanwhile, money is short and the proposed tour is in jeopardy unless 6,000 can be found. Disney have agreed to develop a movie project about Hayes and his cricket adventures - in 1995 he toured England with a team of homeless men - and American Airlines have offered a reduction on air fares. The players have to pay 30 for their own passports and even that is putting a strain on some. Rafael and many others look like children from a third world slum. They plan to play cricket for the Queen and present her with a handmade, graffiticovered bat.

"Some of the students that Ted has worked with have turned their lives around. He had some real gangsters out there, boys with lives full of trauma and now many of them are getting better grades," insists Erik McKee, Willowbrook Middle School`s principal. Parents tell the same story.

I saw the funeral but the day after I visited, play was stopped once again when four men climbed a fence from a house and walked with menace over to the temporary wicket. One kicked a stump, the other rested a hand on a high-calibre weapon in his pocket. "I had to think fast. I introduced myself and rapped with them. They were wild, man they were looking like hungry wolves at my kids but I resolved the situation without blood," Hayes said.

The anger was real, the crime petty, but one of Hayes`s touring members had crossed out the territorial graffiti of the gang the four men belonged to. It is a street crime that can lead to death in South Central. "Cricket saved them. If they had been playing basketball the gang might have just started firing."

Ted Hayes and Katy Haber can be contacted on 001 213 892 9011

Source :: The Electronic Telegraph (https://www.telegraph.co.uk/)