BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, CMC – Legendary former West Indies captain, Clive Lloyd, said yesterday Basil Butcher’s outstanding contribution to the game had secured him a place in any Caribbean cricket Hall-of-Fame.
Hailing Butcher’s “dependability and reliability”, Lloyd said his fellow countryman had left a legacy of having played a “major part in keeping West Indies and Guyana cricket alive.”
Butcher, a native of Guyana, passed away in Florida on Monday at age 86 following a long illness.
“I offer my sincere condolences to his family and loved ones. We have lost a true stalwart of the game, someone who gave all he had for the game in his native Guyana and across the region,” said Lloyd, who made his Test debut on the tour of India in 1966 with Butcher already a seasoned member of the Windies team.
“He was well loved and admired. He had fans everywhere … all across the cricketing world. His legacy is that he played a major part in keeping West Indies and Guyana cricket alive.
“He was part of that golden era which saw the game grow and flourish. He is someone you would describe as a ‘Hall-of-Famer’ if there was such a thing in West Indies cricket.”
Butcher gathered 3 104 runs in 44 Tests with seven centuries on seven different grounds – two in England, two in Australia, two in India and one in the Caribbean.
Lloyd described him as an elegant batsman who was strong off the backfoot and also scored heavily through the leg-side.
An occasional leg-spinner, the only Test wickets he took all came in one innings – five for 34 against England in Trinidad in 1968.
He made his Test debut in 1958 against India at the Brabourne Stadium in Bombay – now Mumbai – and played his last match against England at Headingley in 1969. In his first-class career he played 169 matches and made 11,628 runs with 31 centuries and 54 half-centuries.
“He was very dependable … very reliable … very calm and an excellent player against all bowling – pace and spin,” Lloyd said.
“You could say in many ways he was Mr Dependable of that era in our cricket. It was like the golden era when we had several cricketers from Guyana in the West Indies team – Rohan Kanhai, Joe Solomon, Lance Gibbs and Basil joined them to make it four.
“He was reliable, very professional and someone who would share their knowledge. He did extremely well for Guyana and also West Indies. He made a double hundred (209 not out at Trent Bridge in 1966) and also got a superb hundred at Lords (133 in 1963).”
