Andrew “Butterz” when leaving for Rwanda in a couple of weeks will mark his third international Tournament, having competed in his first 10 years ago in Benoni at the age of 15.
He was just 13 when he made his debut in the St Helena Cricket League, but his early memories are of playing cricket is as an 8-year-old with his brothers outside on the pavement at the expense of quite a few tennis balls and broken windows.
During these early years, Butterz struggled with his bowling techniques and was only able to develop this under the guidance of his current teammate and Vice-Captain Gareth Johnson, who taught him a lot about skills and the game.
It was in 2012 when he was selected for St Helena’s first International team. In reflecting on this tournament, he has pleasurable memories of sharing a partnership to get to a super over against Seychelles and taking 4 wickets. Following this tournament, he returned to St Helena and played for Jamestown B where he batted a lot with Gavin George who he admired and adds that Gavin taught him a lot about patience and controlling aggression when batting, and then learned tactics from other team members.
Butterz now plays for the Challengers in St Helena and has personally enjoyed good form, scoring 18 ton’s in league and district during his first 5 seasons with the Challengers.
Today, Butterz reflected on a few international 50s on a successful tour for team St Helena in Botswana 2018, following which he was selected by the ICC and Cricket South Africa to attend a high-intensity training camp with Northwest Cricket in South Africa.
Now in good form, Butterz is looking forward to Rwanda 22 and intends to help Team St Helena to make another impact on the world stage.
