by South African cricketer Mike Procter, who died at the age of 77 after complications from surgery, was one of the game around the world. He could match the great players of his era – from Garry Sobers at the start of his career to Ian Botham, Imran Khan, Richard Hadlee and Kapil Dev towards the end.
The only difference was that Procter was able to demonstrate his ability in just seven Test matches for South Africa, while the others managed 500 Test appearances between them. But anyone who played cricket at that time has no doubt that Procter is such a company.
In those seven Games in 1967-70, all against Australia, which Procter thought was the best team in the world at the time, 41 wickets, praising the greatness of his batting; he was on the winning side six times with one draw.
Then, as a result of apartheid, South Africa was banished from world cricket for more than two decades, the first of which coincided with Procter’s peak as a cricketer. At first he was frustrated and angry that he could no longer play at the highest level, but he came to see the bigger picture. Later in life he would say: “What is a career in Testing compared to the great suffering of 40 million people?”
Procter’s frustration may have been lessened by not being overly concerned with personal statistics. Many cricketers feel obliged to say that without taking it seriously, but in Procter’s case this was the truth. He played the game with a cavalier freedom that was mesmerizing, fast bowling, aggressive batting as well as full life when stumps were drawn. The figures could take care of themselves.
But those figures are still astonishing: 21,936 first-class runs at an average of 36.01, and 1,417 wickets at 19.53 each; four hat-tricks in first-class cricket and six first-class debuts in a row – for Rhodesia, now Zimbabwe, which is a participant in the Currie Cup competition in South Africa – an achievement he shares with CB Fry and Don Bradman. So Procter had to be content to play non-international cricket from 1970 onwards. In southern Africa this was mainly Natal and Rhodesia; he also excelled in his brief stints for the Rest of the World in five “Tests” against England in 1970 and in the Kerry Packer Cricket World Series final in Australia in 1977-78. For 14 seasons from 1968 he played for Gloucestershire, soon known as “Proctershire”. At the county ground in Bristol he was as surprised as WG Grace, Gilbert Jessop and Wally Hammond.
Mike was born in Durban, the son of Lorraine and Woodrow Procter who played for Eastern Province against the England/MCC tourists in 1938-39. At Highbury prep school and Hilton college, Mike was an excellent games player. Originally a batsman/wicketkeeper, his coach, John Saunders, convinced him to start bowling. He was vice-captain of the South African schools side that toured England in 1963; Barry Richards was the captain.
Two years later both played a season for Gloucestershire’s second XI, with Procter at the top of the batting average, Richards in the media, and were allowed to appear in one first-team match that summer, in the face of the tourists. Thus, the two teenagers from Natal kept Gloucestershire’s innings together in a partnership of 116 runs – against South Africa.
In 1968 overseas players were allowed to stick to the English game and Gloucestershire quickly signed Procter, with Richards going to Hampshire. By then Procter had become a Test cricketer, tormenting the Australian batsmen on their 1967 tour; he would be joined by Richards in the South African side in 1970 when Australia’s winning streak increased to an all-time high.
Procter would have earned a place as a batsman in the team, but at this stage of his career it was his bowling that his captain was keen on and his opponents were looking for extra protection. Then came the exile. Although Procter was consigned to domestic cricket, he relished that challenge with a zest that would sometimes leave Richards behind, who would eventually struggle to hide his boredom as he looked forward to a game another humdrum county.
His innate competitiveness as well as the buzz of the dressing room in Bristol never seemed to lack motivation. His barnstorming play led Gloucestershire to two one-day trophies, and he ended up captaining the county for five seasons from 1977.
It was an unusual flurry, carrying him up to the sinkhole before it was revealed that he was bowling off the wrong foot – although this was not the case. He had an open chest and depended on quick hand action for his speed. He was not shy about bowling bouncers and could easily intimidate the more timorous batsmen on the circuit.
From time to time, to relieve them, he bowled holiday breaks, but even then he could prevail. I got that relief once when he was facing his holiday for Somerset in Bristol, and with that he made a bouncer out of two steps. I proudly hooked the ball towards the square leg boundary before falling on my stumps, dismissing a wicket hit.
As his career progressed his ability to swing the ball into the right hands was often as devastating as his speed. Those four hat tricks in first-class cricket against their opponents usually involved a string of lbws. A one-day semi-final at Southampton in 1977 can still be seen on YouTube when he took the best four Hampshire batsmen in five balls (with two lbs) while bowling around the will.
A young Mark Nicholas was working the scoreboard that day, and he recalled that the next batsman, Nigel Cowley, was also very strong with his first delivery, but umpire Tommy Spencer could not bring himself to raise a finger again.
In contrast to his bowling, Procter’s batting was based on classical orthodoxy, but the same was not strictly forbidden. He once met Somerset’s Dennis Breakwell for six in a row (though not in the same match). Instinctively he would take the aggressive option, which was not as common in the 1970s as it is today. Few batsmen in that era hit the ball as hard or as high.
Procter remained involved in cricket after his retirement, although he always struggled to find the excitement of playing the game. He was briefly director of cricket at Northamptonshire before being parachuted in as coach of the South African national team that suddenly returned from the desert in 1992.
As a match referee for the International Cricket Council (ICC), he was fortunate enough to officiate the 2006 Oval Test when Pakistan refused to take the field following allegations of ball-tampering. More damaging to his career as an umpire was the banning of Indian spinner Harbhajan Singh, for allegedly racially abusing Andrew Symonds at Sydney in 2008, a decision that was eventually overturned on appeal.
He then became convener of selectors for South Africa, although this position lasted less than two years, after which he devoted more of his energy to the Mike Procter Foundation, a charity which supports disadvantaged and poorer children in Durban.
In 1969 he married Maryna Godwin, a tennis player who had reached the quarterfinals of the US Open the previous year. She survives him, along with their children, Greg, Jessica and Tammy.
• Michael John Procter, cricketer, born 15 September 1946; he died 17 February 2024
