16 Facts About Basil Butcher

Basil Fitzherbert Butcher was a Guyanese cricketer who played for the West Indies cricket team.

Basil Butcher was regarded as a reliable right-handed middle-order batsman in the star-studded West Indian batting line-up of the 1960s.

Basil Butcher left Corentyne High School without completing his education and worked a variety of jobs, including as teacher, Public Works Department clerk, insurance salesman and welfare officer, while playing cricket for Port Mourant Sports Club.

Basil Butcher's father was from Barbados, and was of Indo-Trinidadian descent through his grandmother who was an East Indian.

Basil Butcher scored 28 and 64 not out, batting with Kanhai as a runner and sharing a 134-run stand with Garfield Sobers before the West Indies declared.

Basil Butcher scored his maiden Test century in the third Test at Eden Gardens, which the West Indies won by an innings and 336 runs.

Basil Butcher was one of three batsmen to score a century in the West Indies innings, finishing with 103 in three hours with 15 fours, and sharing a 217-run partnership with Kanhai which lasted just over three hours.

Basil Butcher backed up with a second consecutive century in the Fourth Test at Madras, scoring 142 in just over five-and-a-half hours with 10 fours, playing a key role in the West Indies' series-clinching victory.

Basil Butcher finished the series with 486 runs at an average of 69.42.

Basil Butcher struggled until the 1963 tour of England, where he rediscovered his form by making 383 runs which included an innings of 133 from a team total of just 229, helping the West Indies to a draw at Lord's.

Basil Butcher made his highest Test score at Trent Bridge in 1966.

West Indies trailed England by 90 on the first innings, but Basil Butcher made 209 not out in the second, adding 173 in two hours with Sobers, who then declared, and West Indies went on to win by 139 runs.

Basil Butcher was West Indies' highest scorer in the series in England in 1969, with 238 runs at an average of 39.66, and was made a Wisden Cricketer of the Year in 1970.

Basil Butcher worked as a Public Relations Officer at Guymine, a bauxite company in Guyana.

Basil Butcher died in Florida, United States, on 16 December 2019, after a long period of illness.

Former Guyana and West Indies batsman Basil Butcher died earlier today in Florida, according to his son Basil Butcher jr.