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‘Jimmy’ Adams changed my cricket ambitions – Butler
August 11, 2023
Founder of Phoenix Football Academy and current Mona High coach Craig Butler is convinced that an incident involving former Jamaica and West Indies batsman James 'Jimmy' Adams concretised his love for football.
Butler, who outlined that he dabbled in several sports in his younger days, which included track and field and swimming, stated that his first cricket training session at Jamaica College (JC) was a painful experience.
According to Butler, Adams was his good friend at JC, but the renowned batsman, who was on his way to international stardom while batting in the training session, drove the ball into him, which influenced Butler's decision to return to his first love, football.
"I remember an experience at cricket training with former West Indies captain Jimmy Adams when he played a shot that hit me in the chest. I said, 'any ball that I can't head, I wouldn't play', so that's why I stuck with football," Butler said.
It was a choice that worked well for Butler during his schoolboy football glory days, as he helped Jamaica College to the 1984 schoolboy Manning Cup football final, where they lost to St George's College.
Butler stated he fashioned his playing style from former Brazilian left-back Junior.
"I played Manning Cup from 1983 through 1986. Back in those times, I was the first attacking wing-back, and in the 1984 Manning Cup final, I played that position with no midfielder and no winger, so I ran the entire wing.
"I would overlap a lot, and during that time, there was a left-back called Junior from the Brazilian team, and I considered myself similar to him," Butler stated.
His passion for football, however, started a few years earlier, with his love for the sport being propelled by wanting to make his preparatory school coach, Karl Largie, proud, because of the father figure role he had assumed in his life.
"I started playing football as an outlet because I was the eldest of five children, and as a young man, I had a lot of responsibility and very little fun. I also remember going for a football tryout in my school shoes, and Karl Largie, my coach at the time, was really a warm, loving coach who was also dedicated. He was so jovial and motivating that I just wanted to play the sport to make him proud, and he became a father figure to me," he added.
Butler was, however, quick to point out that while he was good at football and abandoned any plans he had for cricket, he was a member of Jamaica's track and field team.
"I was also on Jamaica College's Class Three 4x100 metres team, so I was a sprinter, and I also did swimming, but definitely not cricket," he said.
