Roland Butcher: ‘West Indies are struggling – we’ve not hit rock bottom yet’

After West Indies secured a one-day series draw against Ireland on Sunday their captain, Shai Hope, was asked about the team’s imminent visit to England. “We played them at the end of last year and we won that series so we know they’re going to be coming at us even harder this time,” he said. “We’re looking forward to it. We know they’re going to be a tough, tough opponent but we’re always ready to play anyone.”

Roland Butcher, child of Barbados, once of England and more recently a West Indies selector, has a less optimistic outlook: “We’re struggling, and the struggle is not over. We haven’t hit rock bottom yet.” The concentration of power across all three formats in the hands of one coach and selector – Daren Sammy – is what Butcher fears “is going to finally push us to the bottom”.

Butcher’s knowledge of Caribbean cricket is broad and deep, with 15 years as head coach of the University of the West Indies sports academy, one serving on the national team’s selection panel alongside another familiar name in Desmond Haynes, and many commentating on matches around the region. He was appointed as a selector in December 2022 but dismissed a year later, with full control of the team eventually handed to Sammy, who picks and also coaches the senior side across all formats as of April this year.

“In Desmond and myself you’ve got over 100 years of experience at the highest level, still capable, still wanting to contribute,” Butcher says. “I’ve moved on and Desmond has moved on as well, but we’ve got this knowledge, we want to help and they’re struggling.

“It was a very left-field change, and not a change that I agree with. Not because I’m no longer a selector, it’s just not suitable for somewhere like the West Indies. In 2023, they had the best run they’ve had for 25 years in terms of results and for some reason they decided to make Daren the only selector and coach. I mean, madness. And it’s going to be tested already because they’re over here and then in a couple of weeks Australia is arriving for a Test series. I mean, how can you coach three teams? How can you be the only selector for three teams? It’s just absolute madness.

“What they’ve done is they’ve said the chairmen of selectors in the territories – so in Barbados or in Trinidad – now becomes a talent scout as well. But there’s no selection process for them. The selector in Barbados, he’s a man in a full-time job. When does Sammy watch regional cricket? Desmond Haynes and myself, that’s all we did, watch cricket, all over the place. I was a youth selector as well so I’d be at the regional tournaments, under‑15, under-17, under-19, and I got to see all the young talent coming through. The talent scouts can’t do that. And they didn’t just get rid of the senior men’s selectors. The youth selectors as well, they changed that.”

In Butcher’s year as a selector, the West Indies men’s side won 51% of their games, the only time this century they have won the majority of their matches across all formats in a calendar year. “When I left, I said to Desmond: ‘We were a success.’ There’s no other West Indian selector that has left and can say they were a success, they were always let go because the team failed,” he says. “We were a success. So that will always stay with me. The powers that be, they wanted to move to a different situation. But we were a success and we were on the right path. There’s no question about that. They can’t take that away.”

West Indies have been affected by the proliferation of lucrative franchise leagues and their habit of distracting – or just taking – international players. “But I think England have started to experience what West Indies have experienced for the last 10 years,” Butcher says.

“I don’t think many countries looked at what was happening with West Indies and ever thought: ‘You know what, this’ll happen to us too.’ For the last 10 years, West Indies teams have been weakened by domestic leagues and everybody was sitting back saying: ‘Oh, West Indies, they’re mercenaries.’ They didn’t think it would come home to roost.”

Roland Butcher, pictured here playing for Middlesex in 1981, enjoyed much success during his 16 years at the club. Photograph: Colorsport/Shutterstock

After a winter in Barbados, Butcher is settling back in to life in England before a summer of commentary and promoting his new book, Breaking Barriers. It certainly doesn’t want for interesting stories: being brought up in poverty by his grandmother on Barbados’s east coast, being uprooted to join his parents in Stevenage, hoovering up trophies in a wonderful Middlesex side, becoming England’s first black player before having his international ambitions crushed by a serious eye injury, and going into and swiftly giving up on cricket coaching. “I found the English system too rigid. It was all from a book. I didn’t feel confident enough that I would be allowed to do what I thought should happen.” He turned instead to football, met a then-unknown Brendan Rodgers while studying for his Uefa B licence and was recruited by him to join Reading’s academy, before being left behind when Rodgers was headhunted by Chelsea and from there launched on a stellar coaching career.

“If he hadn’t gone I think I would have stuck it longer,” Butcher says. “What pushed me out eventually was the fact that I knew John Barnes very well and he was having it really tough. He couldn’t get interviews, couldn’t get shortlisted, couldn’t get nothing. So after Brendan left, it dawned on me if guys of that level are struggling to make it professionally, it’s gonna be tough for me.”

Now 71, Butcher has no intention of drifting away from cricket. He is very active as the president of Barbados Royals girls cricket club, the region’s first all-female club, and a patron of the Ace Programme, the British charity trying to drive engagement in the sport among underrepresented communities. “While I’m still capable physically and mentally to do something, I think I’ve got a lot to offer. I’m a cricket man and cricket has been my life.”