But most of all they will be there to cheer on the peace process

But most of all they will be there to cheer on the peace process. Two years ago they went on a swing through England that included stop-offs at Lord’s and Hambledon as well as an appointment for tea with Prince Edward at Buckingham Palace.And now they are preparing for a follow-up tour, a 19-day trip starting on Wednesday that will not only include games against the Lord’s Taverners and the British Army, but will also feature a four-day foray into Northern Ireland for a mixture of sports and goodwill politics.Thanks to sponsorship from Felix Dennis, the magazine magnate, the team will play cricket with the Irish Civil Service and try their hand at hurling against a local nationalist team. Gloves is for sissies.”And so Sergio became hooked, utterly convinced that this genteel sport for upper-class Englishmen was in fact tailor-made for tough American street kids like him. And what started out as an unorthodox sporting interest – he is now a useful opening bat with a sideline in medium-pace bowling – has turned into something ever stranger.His team, which has gone through several names but is currently known as the Homeys and the Pops, has attracted more than local attention. Using a rusted baseball cage as a makeshift net, kids very like himself were hooking, driving and smashing the ball across the field in all directions.

He picked up the ball, staring at the seam and bouncing it lightly in his hand to appreciate its weight and firmness.”Where’s your gloves?” he asked.”Ain’t no gloves, homey. Nobody in the ‘hood had much idea what they were doing there, much less what this strange sport of theirs might be.
Sergio approached, wearing the trademark baggy pants of Latino gang members and dragging a bulldog on a thick chain behind him He looked mean as hell.”Hey, what is this?” he asked “Some kind of baseball game?”"No, man This is cricket,” was the answer “Baseball’s a sissy game.”Sergio watched for a few minutes. But something odd was going on in his neighbourhood, and he decided to check it out. On an uneven, unwatered sports field behind one of Compton’s typically destitute middle schools, a raggedy band of bums scooped up off the streets of downtown Los Angeles and a handful of teenage homeboys from the city’s blasted hinterland were smashing at a hard red ball with long wooden bats. Three years ago, Sergio Pinales had never heard of cricket He really had no reason to. He was your typical gangland chulo, a bad-ass Latino teenager straight out of Compton, with bad-ass short-cropped hair, a bad-ass earring in his left ear, disconcertingly well-developed biceps and a hardened stare that took no prisoners.

But was it any worse than the stuff you see in public spaces in the West, painted for mere commercial gain? I don’t think so.”`Aufstieg und Fall der Moderne’ continues at the Mehrszweckhalle, Weimar, until 9 November. Yes, a lot of the official art was rubbish, produced to order. “It reminds me of the way the Nazis exhibited so-called Degenerate Art,” says Frau Schaeffer “It’s a denunciation, not an exhibition. Originally, they were jumbled up like an auctioneer’s job lot The random nature of the selection still offends.