The first time someone invited Sergio Pinales to play cricket, he assumed the game involved a race.
"Like you put a bunch of crickets on the floor," he said. "And you see which one goes the fastest."
Then a Compton high school student, Pinales, like most Americans, had never heard of the gentlemanly, pitch-and-wicket sport that's long captivated audiences in England, South Africa and India.
So, nearly 20 years ago, when a few outsiders showed up at his local high school to recruit players, he and the other students were skeptical.
Little did they know their team — a rough-hewn crew called the Compton Cricket Club — would one day travel the globe as ambassadors of the sport.