The Berbice Cricket Board (BCB) will host an evening of reflection January 16 in honor of the late West Indies batsman, Basil Butcher, who died December 16 last year.
He was 86-years-old.
According to the county board, the event will be held from 18.00 hours at the Port Mourant Cricket Club where Butcher played cricket.
The venue will be decorated to reflect the life and career of the late cricketer.
Expected to lead the tributes are former national player and friend of Butcher, Sydney Jackman and President of the Board, Hilbert Foster.
Butcher’s body will travel to Linden on January 15 for viewing at the Mackenzie Sports Club from 14.00-16.00 hours followed by a wake. He will then travel to Georgetown where the funeral service will take place at the Christ Church Parish on Waterloo Street. Immediately afterwards, he will be cremated at the Good Hope Crematorium, East Coast Demerara.
Butcher’s ashes will then head to Berbice for burial at the St. Joseph’s Anglican Church, Port Mourant on January 17.
Often described as the linchpin in the West Indies batting order in the 1960s, Butcher was a dependable batsman who played alongside fellow greats such as Rohan Kanhai, Wes Hall, Gary Sobers, Clive Lloyd, Lance Gibbs, Roy Fredericks, Stephen Camacho and the late Sir Frank Worrell.
He played 44 test matches for West Indies between 1958 and 1969 and scored 3104 runs with a best of 209 not out against England in Nottingham in 1966. Butcher scored seven centuries and 16 half centuries and also took five wickets with his leg break bowling.
Butcher was born the only son of seven children to a Barbadian father, Ethelbert and Guyanese mother, Matilda.
