Basil Butcher: 11 things about the gritty Guyanese

Basil Fitzherbert Butcher was a middle-order Guyana who was at his best with his back to the wall.

Born September 3, 1933, Basil Fitzherbert Butcher was a middle-order Guyana who was at his best with his back to the wall. Unfortunately, a strong West Indian middle-order consisting of Garry Sobers, Rohan Kanhai, Seymour Nurse, and later on Clive Lloyd, meant Butcher’s career was restricted to 44 Tests. A wristy, technically solid batsman, Butcher scored 3,104 runs at 43, which was not significantly inferior to his 11,628 First-Class runs at 50. Abhishek Mukherjee narrates 11 facts about of Basil Butcher.

1.  The baker who married a butcher in a sugar mill

Despite his surname, Ethelbert Fitzherbert Butcher worked at Port Mourant Sugar Estate. Mathilda Elizabeth Love ran a bakery. They were also the parents of Basil.

2.  Why Basil middled everything

Though cricket was popular at Port Mourant, equipment was not. Thus, Basil grew up batting without pads. This meant he had to middle everything hurled at him: who wants to be hurt on the shin?

3.  Jack of all trades

Like Arthur Mailey decades before him, Butcher had an assortment of professions: he taught in a school; he was a clerk in Public Works Department; he sold insurance; and was a Welfare Officer; most importantly, he played cricket.

4.  Solomon’s mines

Butcher played for Port Mourant Sports Club, where Joe Solomon ran supreme. Solomon first recruited (and mentored, whenever necessary) Kanhai, Butcher, and Ivan Madray. All three (and, of course, Solomon) played Test cricket.

5.  Finding home away from home

Butcher’s career average read an impressive 43 (a decent average in the 1960s), but what really makes him stand out are his overseas numbers. While his 737 home runs came at 35, he scored 2,367 away from home at 46, averaging over 40 in every country he played in barring Pakistan.

6.  Foxed by Fergie

Butcher and Wes Hall made their debut together, at Brabourne Stadium. He went out to bat at 118 for 4, and was all at sea against Subhash Gupte. He told manager Berkeley Gaskin: “Mr Manager, I don’t know what that man doing, I play to four balls and I miss all four.” He scored 28 before being claimed by Gupte.

7.  Dream run

Butcher started his Test career with 28 and 64* (at Brabourne), 2 and 60 (Green Park), 103 (Eden Gardens), 142 and 16 (Chepauk), 71 (Kotla), and 45* and 61 (Karachi). In the process he scored at least one fifty in each of his first six Tests. The only others to achieve this are Bert Sutcliffe, Saeed Ahmed, and Sunil Gavaskar.

8.  Conquering grief

During West Indies’ second innings of the Lord’s Test of 1963 (the famous one where Colin Cowdrey emerged with one arm in plaster), Butcher received a letter from his wife: she had had a miscarriage. If anything, it increased Butcher’s concentration level: he grafted along with 133 with only two others reaching double-figures.

West Indies scored 229, which meant Butcher had scored 58.1 per cent of the runs his team did. At that point of time it was the highest proportion among West Indians, though five men have gone past him subsequently.

9.  All eggs in one basket

Butcher took 5 for 34 against England at Queen’s Park Oval, 1967-68 (this was the Test where Garry Sobers set England 215, which they chased down). These remained his only Test wickets. Albert Rose-Innes, Christopher Heseltine, Gobo Ashley, and Vivek Razdan are the only others to take a five-wicket haul and no other wicket in their Test careers.

Note: Of current cricketers, John Nyumbu has done the same, though he will almost certainly play again.

10.  The Sion Mills shock

The match against Ireland at Sion Mills in 1969 was almost certainly the lowest point of Butcher’s career. West Indies took the match rather casually, to the extent that Sobers dropped out, and manager Clyde Walcott took field. Butcher led the tourists. West Indies, bowled out for 25 by Alec O’Riordian and Douglas Goodwin, suffered a humiliating defeat.

11.  Pantheon of giants

In 2008 Butcher was inducted into the Berbice Hall of Fame. He was in elite company, for the others were Kanhai, Solomon, Roy Fredericks, Alvin Kallicharran, and John Trim. 

(Abhishek Mukherjee is the Chief Editor of CricketCountry and CricLife. He tweets at @ovshake42.)