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'Look, They've Got 5': Ex-England Star Recalls Dealing With Racism In Cricket
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Roland Butcher, England's first Black cricketer, faced casual racism but played 277 First-Class matches, scoring over 12,000 runs. He is proud to inspire future Black players.
Roland Butcher, the first Black cricketer to play for England, has recalled the casual racism he used to face during the time he was coming up the ranks. One incident saw a member of the crowd shouting about how his Middlesex team had five of 'them' — Wayne Daniel, Will Slack, Neil Williams, and Norman Collins — during a game in the County Championship.
Butcher, a wicketkeeper by trade, played three ODIs and as many Tests for England. He also featured in 277 First-Class and 271 List-A matches. Although his international career was a bit underwhelming in terms of statistics, he scored over 12,000 runs, including 17 centuries and 65 fifties in his First-Class tenure. He grew up in Barbados and moved to England when he was 13, and currently shuttles between the two countries.
'One of the things that I remember me personally is, I was fortunate to play in a very good Middlesex team that was very successful," he said in an interview with PTI. 'We had a lot of good players, but we also had, at any one time, we had five black players in the team. So there was myself, Wayne Daniel, Will Slack, Neil Williams and Norman Collins. So, you know, we were a pretty multi-racial team, but it didn't stop opposition fans from remarking at times. I can remember one particular game against Kent where we were taking the field after tea and as we walked through the crowd, someone remarked, 'look, they've got five of them'. I just thought, how perceptive, we've been playing all day and you only just realised that there's five black players in Middlesex team," he added.
'A lot of black players had difficult times, more difficult times than me around the circuit. But having made the breakthrough, I think it assisted a number of other black players who had been striving to get forward. I'm still very proud of that achievement because as I said, not only did I get to where I wanted to be as an international cricketer and achieve what I wanted to, I'm very proud that it opened the doors for many and many black players have passed through that door as well," he added.
Butcher said there's still a 'long way to go' till England can eradicate racism from its society, though appreciating the progress that has been made in the last five years or so.
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First Published:
July 18, 2025, 15:52 IST
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