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The Story.

In reply to ProWI

I remembered watching him as a youth after his WI playing days were over representing I think was Mckenzie in Case Cup. We were told that old man used to play for West Indies, we were awestruck. Very disciplined guy.

In reply to ProWI

Do you know if he had bajan family...Butcher is a fairly popular bajan name but I don't know if it is also popular in Guyana

In reply to Oilah

ask his son....denoke

In reply to Runs

Basil Butcher was cricket coach and player for the Mckenzie Sports Club at Linden while he was still playing for the West Indies.He was paid by the Demerara Bauxite Company.....also played in the limited overs Bristol Cup competition in the 70's after he retired from test cricket...all that time he was living in Linden and also owned a liquor distribution store.

In reply to Oilah

Butcher's father was Bajan.

In reply to ProWI

Then Sars was the second....

In reply to Norm


About half of Guyanese are Bajan. Ask Chrissy.

Even one of my great-aunts went there around the end of the 19th.Century

In reply to pugie

Played into the early 80's

In reply to ProWI

Very interesting...thanks for that.

In reply to ProWI

Lots of Bajans and folks from the Windwards migrated to Guyana from about 1890 to 1960. Some came for farming and mining, while others were skilled craftsmen or professionals.

There were even professional cricketers in the lot, with some playing professionally in Guyana and representing regional teams before 1928, when WI was admitted to Test cricket. These professionals could not play in inter-territorial matches, but were allowed against visiting overseas teams.

Bajans sought economic opportunity and relief from race issues that plagued some areas of life in Barbados.

They were well received in Guyana. No Bajan bench there!

In reply to Norm

.

interesting. could you kindly post some race issues as oppose to economic issues that plagued Bim around this period?



just to remind you there was no such place as Guyana before independence and the people of BG had no choice but to accept what the British did

In reply to Oilah

Roland Butcher is a cousin of Basil.

In reply to Norm

Thanks Norm and TC1

In reply to sudden

there's still no Bajan bench in Independent Guyana

Jack Muh Nanny Gap

Mudheads in Barbados: A Lived Experience

In reply to doosra

i wonder why?

In reply to Kay

that is a beautiful story. almost every family in Bim had some relative that went to BG or Demerara as they used to say.

at school we had about 3 teachers from Guyana and boys whose parents had moved to Bim from Guyana, and this was in the late 70s to early 80s. a lot of them were professional Guyanese moving back home, my grandmother would say

In reply to doosra
Link Text

this should never have been revealed. there was an understanding with that joker Commissiong

In reply to sudden

The race issues were about the White domination of Bajan society - in politics, business, sports, etc. That's why Snuffy Browne migrated to Guyana for example, because race issues in cricket and law angered him. He worked in Guyana as a magistrate after arriving.


Guyana is the original name of the land between the Amazon and the Orinoco. Other names included British Guiana and Demerara, the latter being a native word for the vegetation characteristic to the lower reaches of the river by the same name.

Guyanese refer to their country as "Guyana", using "British Guiana" only to assist those poor in geography. So, "Guyana" existed before Guyana independence in 1966, and before Europeans came to the Americas.

I can imagine that those brought up to think that the Brits were almighty and all-knowing would want to believe, however, that "there was no such place as Guyana before independence".

Though a colony, Guyana was ruled locally in the 19th century by the local Court of Policy, which was very independent from the control of the British Foreign Office. The Court decided how immigrants were received, where they were allowed to live upon arrival, etc. This was necessary because of the large number (hundreds of thousands) of immigrant workers that came to Guyana after emancipation.

In reply to ProWI

You guys better be sure to post factual stuff because one of his Sons post here. Classy chaps his Sons.

In reply to NYCGURU

Butcher and sons have done a lot for Guyana cricket and Berbice cricket, without always receiving reciprocate gratitude.

In reply to Norm

ok i see from where you are coming when you said race issues. ok no problems there but i must point out altho the Brit never interfered with how the Dutch administered BG except to amalgamate Esse, Berbice and Demerara, the Brit governor had overarching direction over the Court of Policy

In reply to sudden

The economic structure in Essequibo, Demerara and Berbice, including the physical and economic organisation of estates, were tied to Dutch law in the 1700's and early 1800's. Therefore, England allowed Dutch law to continue for close to a century after the separate colonies were amalgamated in 1812 (if I remember correctly).

Those laws affected land sales and distribution, water rights, property taxes, infrastructure, labor relations, company laws, etc.

British law was introduced piecemeal under the Court of Policy but elements of Dutch law still exist in Guyana.

The Guyanese and Bajans who carry on as though we are sworn enemies are usually people who have no clue about their personal ancestry or the ancestry of many Guyanese and Bajans.On my mother's side,my mother's grandmother came to BG from Barbados when she was 3 years old.
On my father's side,2 brothers left Antigua as men in their twenties and went to BG.One of them is my great grandfather.Another brother left Antigua and went to St. Kitts.That brother had a daughter who migrated to St. Lucia and she had a son whose name is remarkably similar to mine and now this son has a daughter who is a doctor who is now engaged to a Guyanese doctor and they are both in Jamaica.
This is why this inter territorial rivalry amongst Caribbean people should be regarded as a family affair!!!!!!!

In reply to Dukes

No wonder you so darn mixed up!

Bajans have contributed significantly to the professions in Guyana, and to the development of Guyana's interior.

The good ones all migrated to "BG" years ago tho!

In reply to Norm


Butcher did a lot for cricket in guyana. He played Case cup cricket in the 70's long after he retired. He should have been elected president of GCB but frenism and cronyism won the day...

In reply to Bigzinc

Chetram Singh started the rot that is now propping up both the Guyana Cricket Board and WICB. He took over from Major General McLean in 1991, because everyone wanted a "capitalist" businessman to run cricket, after years of "socialist" hardship under one of Burnham's close associates.

Cricket, and Guyana, were suffering terribly under the government's foreign currency restrictions and Chetty promised to take the GCB out of debt, which he did. After getting in, he made sure no one got him out after that - just like the government of the day!

In reply to ProWI

This STORY is not true

In reply to Stilbatn

Which part of it?

In reply to Norm

That he is part Aboriginal/Amerindian--that is not true
I am surprised that so many people are believing this story

Adam Sanford the Dominican born fast bowler who played for Antigua/Leeward Islands was the 1st and only part Aboriginal/Amerindian who has played any form of representative cricket for the West Indies
I would not say this unless I knew the facts Norm

In reply to Kay

Good one

In reply to Stilbatn

Thanks.

I have seen this apparently incorrect claim that Butcher was part Amerindian before. It should be pointed out too that Sarwan is also NOT part Amerindian.

In reply to Norm

Hmmmmmmmmmm--that one can be "tricky" Norm --will leave that one alone
Thank you

Why do people come up with that shit, I once heard a Jamaican chap argue the fact, that Alvin Kallicharan was Amerindian.