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I am watching the Beeb. They just ran a story on the Compton Cricket Club, made up largely of former gang members and apparently "the only all American-born exhibition cricket team". From Wikipedia:

The Compton Cricket Club (CCC), or the "Homies and the Popz", is a cricket club based in Compton, Los Angeles County, California, USA. The CCC is the only all American-born exhibition cricket team. An ad campaign featuring the CCC modelling the new National English Soccer uniform in LA is currently being publicized around the world by NIKE subsidiary UMBRO [1].

The night of the photo shoot on Super Bowl Sunday 2009, one of the team members was an innocent bystander in a drive-by shooting in Compton and died [2]. This Ad campaign featured in British GQ magazine on a 2 page spread.

Background and mission of the team

The team, originally called the Los Angeles Krickets, was birthed at the Dome Village Homeless Community in Downtown Los Angeles in 1995, by US Homeless activist Ted Hayes and Hollywood Movie Producer Katy Haber, to combat the negative effects of poverty and homelessness. After a highly successful tour of Great Britain later that year, the LA Krickets expanded the team to include inner city Latino gang members from the City of Compton. The Compton Homies and the Popz (Compton Cricket Club) emerged in 1996 as the first All American Inner City Cricket Team. The club uses the ideals of sportsmanship, and the particular importance of etiquette and fair play in cricket, to help players develop respect for authority, a sense of self-esteem and self-discipline. The Compton Homies travelled to the UK in 1997, 1999, and 2001, joined LASCA (the Los Angeles Social Cricket Alliance) and won the British Cup twice.

“The aim of playing cricket is to teach people how to respect themselves and respect authority so they stop killing each other”

(Team Founder, Compton Cricket Club, Ted Hayes)

The 'Homies' mission is to:

1. Curb the negative effects of gang activities amongst the youth of Compton.

2. Addressing homelessness in the inner city through the principles and ethics of cricket.

3. Encourage and promote civility, good and productive citizenship.

[...]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compton_Cricket_Club

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