Breaking Barriers-Barbados to England and Back – By ROLAND BUTCHER

Article by David Harris & Photos by Christopher Williams

Former England’s cricketer Roland Butcher launched his autobiography Breaking Barriers-Barbados to England and Back before an appreciative audience at the Three Ws Oval of the University of the West Indies (UWI) on Wednesday night. 

Butcher, 71, the first black man to play Test cricket for England was born in East Point, St Philip on the eastern part of Barbados and moved to England at the age of 14. 

In 1974 Butcher joined the English County Middlesex, six years later Butcher an attacking middle-order batsman was selected for two One Day Internationals (ODIs) against Australia. On March 12, 1981, created history created history when he made his Test debut against the West Indies at Kensington Oval.  

The launch was hosted by the office of Pro Vice and Principal of the Cave Hill Campus of the UWI Professor Clive Landis. Several members of the cricket fraternity in Barbados attended the event, among them were the legendary Barbados and West Indies opening batsman The Most Honourable Desmond Haynes, ex Barbados and West Indies batsman Philo Wallace, the vice president of the Barbados Cricket Association (BCA) Calvin Hope, former  Barbados wicketkeeper Erskine King, and outgoing chief executive officer of the BCA Dr Roland Toppin.  

Chairman of the National Sports Council (NSC0 Mac Fingall, president of the Barbados Football Association (BFA) Randy Harris, and director of the Barbados Olympic Association Dr Adrian Lorde  

 Butcher and the book’s co-author Dr Sasha Sutherland read excerpts from the publication.  

There were video greetings from several people connected to Butcher including his son Paul, and captain of the West Indies women’s team Hayley Matthews. 

Tributes were paid to Butcher by Landis and Britian’s acting High Commissioner to Barbados Charley Williams. 

Butcher told the audience that even though he was a professional cricketer, and his wages were better than a normal job cricketer of his era played cricket because they loved the game. 

“When I said there was no money, the money was better than just a normal job. Desmond will tell you also we played the game because loved the game. We probably would have played for nothing. We had a great love for the sport and got a lot of enjoyment from it”, Butcher said.  

Haynes spoke about Butcher’s skills in the field that their former captain at Middlesex Mike Gatting once told him that “Roland was once of the best fielders in the world”. 

“I used to be very keen to see Roland fielding in the covers especially when we were playing in the Sunday League, I never saw Colin Bland (who is rated as one of greatest cover fielders, but I think Roland was fantastic fielder in the covers”, Haynes said. 

Butcher said his friendship with Haynes began in 1976 when they called to trails for the Barbados cricket team. 

“We were teammates and at Middlesex – and more recently we West Indies selectors’; and then were both fired from that job”, Butcher said to the amusement of the audience.