West Indies mourn 'batting legend' Butcher, dead at 86

Basil Butcher was hailed as a West Indies "cricket legend" after the former Test batsman died aged 86. Butcher was a member of a star-studded West Indies top order for over a decade in a Test career starting in the late 1950s. He played alongside Rohan Kanhai and Garry Sobers before they were joined in the side by Clive Lloyd and Roy Fredericks.

Guyana right-hander Butcher more than held his own in such distinguished company, scoring 3,104 runs in 44 Tests at an average of more than 43, including seven hundreds, from 1958-69. Butcher's best performances were reserved for England. He made 133 in the second innings of the Lord's Test of 1963, which produced one of cricket's most dramatic draws.

That hundred was all the more remarkable as during an interval he opened a letter which told him his wife had had a miscarriage in Guyana. Three years later, Butcher compiled his highest Test score of 209 not out, against England in Nottingham. Butcher is survived by his wife, Valerie, and children, Brian, Bruce, Basil Jr and Blossom.