FORMER West Indies and Guyana batsman Basil Butcher passed away last evening in Florida.

He was 86.

Born Basil Fitzherbert Butcher, the former West Indian player was described as a strong middle-order batsman by cricket pundits.

He was said to be the first person of Indigenous extract to play professional cricket, rubbing shoulders with the likes of Gary Sobers, Seymour Nurse, and fellow Guyanese Clive Lloyd, Rohan Kanhai, Joe Solomon and Lance Gibbs.

In 2008, Butcher was inducted into the Berbice Hall of Fame, joining men such as Rohan Kanhai, Roy Fredericks, Alvin Kallicharran, and John Trim.

Born on September 3, 1933 at Port Mourant, Berbice, to a Barbadian father and Berbician mother, Butcher told the Guyana Chronicle last February that he’d always felt he was born a cricketer. “From the time I was ‘hatched’ I was a cricketer,” he said with a chuckle.

After moving to Mackenzie in the early ‘60s he got involved in coaching cricket at the Mackenzie Sports Club, something he said he really enjoyed doing. Eventually, Butcher started working with the then Demerara Bauxite Company (DEMBA) in the field of Public Relations.

He was quoted as saying at the time that while he was always gainfully engaged in a number of activities within the communities in which he lived, these being Berbice and Mackenzie, he still found time to enjoy the pleasures of life.