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Full name Basil Fitzherbert Butcher
Born September 3, 1933, Port Mourant, Berbice, British Guiana
Current age 75 years 41 days
Major teams West Indies,British Guiana,Guyana
Batting style Right-hand bat
Bowling style Legbreak
Batting and fielding averages
Mat
Inns
NO
Runs
HS
Ave
100
50
6s
Ct
St
Tests
44
78
6
3104
209*
43.11
7
16
6
15
0
First-class
169
262
29
11628
209*
49.90
31
54
67
0
List A
5
4
1
107
57
35.66
0
1
1
0
Bowling averages
Mat
Inns
Balls
Runs
Wkts
BBI
BBM
Ave
Econ
SR
4w
5w
10
Tests
44
6
256
90
5
5/34
5/51
18.00
2.10
51.2
0
1
0
First-class
169
2193
1217
40
5/34
30.42
3.32
54.8
1
0
List A
5
12
10
1
1/10
1/10
10.00
5.00
12.0
0
0
0
Career statistics
Test debut
India v West Indies at Mumbai (BS), Nov 28-Dec 3, 1958 scorecard
Last Test
England v West Indies at Leeds, Jul 10-15, 1969 scorecard
Test statistics
First-class span
1954/55 - 1970/71
List A span
1963 - 1972/73
Profile
A supple, wristy, resolute batsman, Basil Butcher became a consistently reliable performer at No. 4 or 5 in the West Indies order. In his first Test series, against India in 1958-59, he made 486 runs at 69.42, but had a chequered career thereafter, until the 1963 tour of England, when he made 383 runs in eight completed innings, including 133 out of 229 in the memorable draw at Lord's. During an interval in that match he opened a letter which advised him that (against a background of civil war) his wife had had a miscarriage back home in Guyana. Very upset, Butcher continued to play a solid and masterly innings which saved his side. Two fine series against Australia led Richie Benaud to consider him the most difficult of all West Indians to get out. An occasional legspinner himself, the only Test wickets Butcher took were all in one innings - 5 for 34 (four coming in three overs) against England at Port-of-Spain in 1967-68. Christopher Martin-Jenkins
Adapted by Wisden from World Cricketers: A Biographical Dictionary (Oxford, 1996).
