Butts has played a big role in my Cricket and Commentary career

The late Clyde Godfrey Butts was born to Euston and Lucille Butts on July 8, 1957, in the Village of Perseverance (the village with the halfway tree) on the East Coast of Demerara in Mahaicony. He died on Friday, December 8 due to a vehicular accident.
The former Guyana and West Indies off-spinner is the youngest of 10 siblings and attended the Zeelandia Primary School.

“Clyde was very humble and always loved playing cricket. He and his cousins and friends played the game every afternoon after school. He was always kind, courteous, and respectful. He used to help his dad in the garden (which is a passion he carried on till his death). Clyde was a happy child, cheerful with an infectious spirit of love, kindness and joy” disclosed his sister Verney Hopkinson.
Butts, Kenneth Wong, Neil McGarrell and present ‘A’ team pacer Shamar Joseph are the only Guyanese who never represented Guyana at the youth level to play for West Indies at any level.
Butts was reportedly taken to DCC by Lance Gibbs, the first bowler to reach 300 Test wickets, but while the ‘old stagers’ at DCC confirmed that he started at DCC, they can’t remember who brought him.

Butts, who joined the Guyana Police Force in the early 1970s, played a few matches for the Police before joining Everest. He later played for East Coast when that team played in the Demerara first-division tournament along with East Bank and West Demerara and the city teams.
When GNIC was granted first-division status Butts moved to that club and remained a member until his unfortunate death and played competitively until he was 61.
Many felt that he never played for Guyana at youth level because of where he resided.

It’s an interesting story how he made his First-Class career debut in January 1981 when after not being picked for the Barbados game, he had 3-60 against T&T; dismissing Larry Gomes, Derick Murray and the late Rangy Nanan.
The trials had been washed out and he bowled to Test batter Alvin Kallicharran in the nets. Kallicharran was so impressed with the then 24-year-old Butts, that he picked him in the Guyana team.

“I was in the GCC pavilion getting ready to go home when I was told to turn up the next day with my cricket clothes. I turned up and was picked for the team. I was a bit nervous being in the same room with Clive Lloyd, Colin Croft and Kallicharran” Butts had disclosed.
Butts played in three tournaments where Guyana won First-Class titles: 1983 under Lloyd, and 1987 and 1993 under Roger Harper. In 87 and 93 Guyana won both the First-Class and 50 overs titles.

In the 1993 Red Stripe Cup, Butts achieved his most successful season with 34 wickets with two five-wicket hauls with a best of 7-90. This was the sixth season, in a First-Class career that spanned between 1981-1994, that he had taken more than 20 scalps. Back only five matches were played in a season.
In the 1994 season, which was his last Butts took three four-wicket hauls in 18 wickets with a best of 4-38 before he retired from First-Class and Inter-County cricket at the age of 37.

Butts played the first of his seven Tests at Bourda against New Zealand in 1985 and while he failed to take a wicket he got married to his first wife on the rest day of that game and the entire West Indies team attended the Wedding.
Butts played 87 First-Class matches between 1980-1994 and finished with 348 wickets with a best of 7-29 including 23 five-wicket and two 10-wicket hauls. He also managed two First-Class fifties.

He had 10 of those wickets in Test cricket, 270 for Guyana at the Regional level, and 30 for Demerara at Inter-County between 1981 and 1989 when the final was given First-Class status.
The rest of his 348 wickets were taken for the Shell Shield X1 (1985), Young West Indies (1983) and the West Indies Board X1 among others.
Butts played at a time when there were no ‘big bucks’ T20 leagues and represented Guyana in 32 Regional 50-over games and West Indies banking on a fearsome fast bowing attack which limited his opportunities.

During most of Butt’s career for Guyana in Shell Shield cricket he formed a spin trio with Harper and Derick Kallicharran.
Butts, regarded as Guyana’s best off-spinner after Gibbs, was married twice and has two boys and three girls and eight grandchildren.

After his playing days, Butts was appointed a West Indies Selector in July 2008 and was the Chairman when West Indies won the 2012 T20 World Cup. He was also a Coach and Manager of the West Indies U-19 Team.
Butts, whose funeral is pending arrangements, played a huge role in this writer’s cricket and Radio Commentary career as a mentor before I played for Guyana U-19s and was the Coach when I was in Guyana’s First-Class squad in 1999.
When I made my debut as a First-Class Commentator at Blairmont in 1995, Butts was the analyst.