RHTY&SC, MS/BCB Basil Butcher Memorial Project to assist dozens of less fortunate cricketers

Dozens of less fortunate cricketers drawn from clubs across the Berbice Coastline and from Linden would benefit shortly from the Rose Hall Town Youth and Sports Club/Berbice Cricket Board-organised Basil Butcher Memorial Project. The project has been organised in memory of the late West Indies batting legend Basil Butcher, who died last year at the age of 86 years in Florida, USA and was later buried in his home village of Port Mourant in East Berbice.
Secretary/CEO of the RHTY&SC, MS, Hilbert Foster, who is also President of the BCB, has said that 87 young cricketers would each receive one piece of cricket gear as both organisations join hands with the Butcher Family to honour the legend on the 3rd of September, the 87th anniversary of his birth.
The cricket gear to be shared out over the course of the next month would include helmets, batting pads, batting gloves, wicketkeeping gloves, and wicketkeeping pads. The project would also include the distribution of bicycles, school bags to less fortunate students, and scorebooks to cricket clubs in the Lower Corentyne Sub-district.

A total of 550 food hampers has already been distributed out of a projected 1000 in what Foster has described as the first in many tribute projects to honour outstanding Berbice players.
Mr. Butcher’s family, led by his widow Pam Butcher, has given its blessings to the project, and members are actively assisting via the setting up of a GO FUND ME ACCOUNT in the USA.
Butcher’s eldest child, Keith Foster, is the President of the RHTY&SC, and served as President of the BCB between 2007 and 2014.
The RHTY&SC Secretary/CEO has said that ten of the youth cricketers would be from his club, while the others would be selected based on recommendations of clubs across Berbice. Great effort, he stated, would be made to make sure that all five sub-associations benefit under the project.
The sub-associations are Upper Corentyne, Central/ Lower Corentyne, New Amsterdam/Canje, Berbice River, and West Berbice.
Butcher made his Test debut on November 28th, 1958 in India, and became the fourth Berbician to play Test cricket, after John Trim, Rohan Kanhai and Ivan Madray. He played 44 test matches, and scored 3104 runs at an average of 43.11 with seven centuries and sixteen half-centuries.
Butcher went on to serve Guyana and the West Indies as an administrator, and was solely responsible for the development of the game in his adopted hometown of linden.
Foster is encouraging cricket clubs in Berbice and Linden to nominate youth cricketers to benefit from this project. Nominations can be made to the RHTY&SC and BCB Facebook accounts, or by calling 337-4562, or email [email protected].