In the peaceful confinements of his home in the mining town of Linden with wife Pam, Basil Fitzherbert Butcher, currently unbeaten in life at 78 not out, articulated his views on cricket in a pleasant but very authoritative and resolute manner.
For all those who saw him bat, they would have seen first hand, the obvious qualities that he brought to bear during his playing days for the West Indies from 1958-1969.
Butcher’s career aggregate reads: 44 tests, 3104 runs, average 43.11, highest score 209 against England in 1966.
After hanging up his boots, his love and interest in the game c
ontinued regionally as he held various positions during his 19-year tenure (1965-1984) as an established figure on the Guyana and West Indies cricket board as assistant secretary, secretary, GCB vice-president and selector.
Butcher occupies a curious place in Guyana’s cricket history. When most people think of the great Guyanese batsmen, the names that regularly come to mind are Clive Lloyd, Rohan Kanhai, Alvin Kallicharran, Butcher, Carl Hooper and Shivnarine Chanderpaul.
However, most of those stalwart former Guyanese cricketers no longer reside in this country. Butcher, who still lives here, remains a respected figure who, as a former player and administrator, certainly would have a unique perspective on the current tumultuous situation affecting Guyana cricket currently.
Stabroek Sport sat down with Butcher, who former Australian captain and revered cricket commentator Richie Benaud once described as the most difficult West Indies batsman to bowl to in a line-up that also included Gary Sobers, Conrad Hunte, Seymour Nurse and Kanhai, and he expressed his views on the current Interim Management Committee (IMC) vs Guyana Cricket Board (GCB) vs West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) impasse and other cricket related matters.
The 1970 Wisden Cricketer-of-the-Year firstly highlighted that he felt both the IMC and GCB have made blunders in the current imbroglio.
“It’s an embarrassment and they need to sort it out quickly. The government belongs to the people, the only authority in a country is the government and one thing I want to make very clear is that the government of any country has got the right to investigate anything that is happening in the country that is affecting the people of the country. In my view they should be meditating the process and by no means should have taken over the cricket board, since they don’t have the expertise,” Butcher declared.
He continued:“In 1984, when I was GCB vice-president, I walked off the cricket board for government intervention. The then Berbice Cricket Board president by the name of Leslie Amsterdam, was told who to vote for by the government or else. The then Chief Education Officer from West Demerara by the name of Chee-a-Tow – was also told by his minister who to vote for. I took strong objection to this and walked out.
“But in today’s situation, when you have cricket administrators and the public all accusing the GCB of all these horrible things – it is tarnishing the image of the nation,” stated Butcher forcefully.
Butcher added that such levels of corruption or accusations of corruption have been going on in the GCB for more than 25 years and blames the influx of people of non-cricketing backgrounds as the root of the problem.
“This has been going over for more than 25 years dating back from Norman McLean then when Chetram Sing took over, the era of folks who didn’t play cricket started running the board and they basically brought nothing to the table – but took everything from it. In my day the cricket board was run by former players (former national players) and sports personalities. If the executive committee had seven persons, at least four or five would be former players – that certainly isn’t the case now,” Butcher contended.
His disillusionment on how the WICB has dealt with the situation was also a major pet peeve of his.
“I don’t know what kind of in-depth investigation WICB did when President (Julian) Hunte came down here and I think most Guyanese are confused, they don’t seem to understand the gravity of the problem down here. But at the same time, the IMC hasn’t helped the situation, but have rather played into the WICB’s hands, which made it easy for them to punish Guyana.”
He questioned: “Why did the IMC lock the GCB office doors? Why did they pick a team for the 4-day tournament along with a coach, selection panel and organize a trial match? – That is not their job, but by doing this the government caused a lot of distastefulness in people’s mouth causing many to say they are taking over the board based on those actions. As I said all they need to do is investigate the allegations levied against the GCB.
“The GCB now is equally wrong for not co-operating with this investigation. Why aren’t they handing over the relevant documents? If the government has a case against an average citizen like us, we can’t tell the government we don’t want to co-operate, that is madness we would get subpoenaed, taken to court and probably locked up,” Butcher said.
In closing Butcher said he felt that there is more than meets the eye with regards to the IMC and GCB and said that at the end of the day, they are both cut from the same cloth, with regards to their political affiliations and the public is basically witnessing an open fight between associates.
Finally when asked his views on the government’s choice to appoint Clive Lloyd – the man he played 18 of his 44 tests from 1966-1969 with, Butcher approved, stating that he would consider taking up some administrative post in cricket even at his age once the current GCB is changed and he hoped that the problem affecting Guyana cricket is sorted out soon since he sees it bringing about a disaffected people in the nation and the Caribbean.
“Clive is in a situation that some may suggest is too hot to handle, he has not lived in Guyana for a long time, everyone, given his standing in world cricket, will tell him hello out of respect – but does he really know them?” Butcher queried.
“He knows what’s going on based on reports in the papers and what his colleagues in Guyana would have told him – but given his experience as player an administrator in various International Cricket Council (ICC) positions, he fits the bill as I said before of a former player running a cricket related body. But the cricket board is in need of urgent cleansing, since cricket is the medium which 95 per cent of the poor Guyanese and West Indians for more than 50 years have used to rise up in life, I can speak of this personally as a youngster growing up of in the cane fields in Port Mourant, Berbice and all this fighting is a clear indictment of those at the helm of these sporting bodies, who are made up of people who never played the sport at a high level.
The Ministry of Youth Culture and Sport must make the intentions of the IMC pellucidly clear that it’s there not to run Guyana’s cricket but to assist the cricketing fraternity to iron out their issues that has brought about the impasse. They must hold a credible Annual General Meeting that will produce an acceptable Guyana Cricket Board.
