Many in the cricketing world will be surprised to learn that Basil Butcher was the first person of Amerindian descent to represent the West Indies in the English ball game of cricket.
His grandmother was a “full out” Amerindian and for Basil Fitzgerald Butcher, what or who she was hardly mattered except for the fact that she had produced a grandson who represented Guyana and the West Indies in the discipline of cricket.
Butcher fought his way to Test level at a time when so many had been knocking at the door of West Indies cricket and failing.
He had made his mark in the County games when Berbice matched strength with Essequibo and Demerara.
Now, the selectors were all eyes as they watched the young man from Port Mourant, who was carrying on in the shadows of John Trim and Robert Christiani.
Against a Jamaica 11 he won the BG’s selector’s nod and bravely walked to the middle.
He did fairly well amidst the testing climate of his debut game and his first innings score of 64 remained one of class and style.
He also performed well in the second innings even though he only made 32. This was in 1954.
It was no surprise then when, along with Joe Solomon, Rohan Kanhai, Lance Gibbs, Bruce Pairaudeau, Clyde Walcott, Clifford McWatt, Pat Legall and others, he won the selectors’ nod and played in the Quadrangular Tournament for Guyana.
Surely, it was for the Jamaican bowlers, a baptism of leather hunting. At that time the Jamaican team featured Roy Gilchrist, Tom Dewdney, Alfred Valentine, Allan Rae, Colly Smith and A.P. Binns among others.
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