Mike Procter, South African cricketer, 1946-2024

In 1970, South Africa stood at the summit of world cricket. The national team hosted Australia in four Test matches — the long version of the sport, played over several days — and won each game by tremendous margins. Players such as Barry Richards and the Pollock brothers, Graeme and Peter, seemed set to dominate the sport for the rest of the decade.

Yet none of the cricketers who thrashed Australia, and who continue to be regarded as the finest side in South Africa’s history, ever played another Test match. Under a ban that lasted until 1991, South Africa was excluded from the official international cricket circuit because of the government’s apartheid policies.

Among the players whose Test careers were cut short was Mike Procter, who has died at the age of 77. A burly, square-shouldered athlete with a mop of flaxen hair, he was 23 when he and his teammates routed Australia in 1970. But he was already recognised as a supremely talented all-rounder — a fearsome fast bowler and swashbuckling batter who held difficult catches in the field.

Procter was never bitter about his missed opportunities. To the contrary, he once said: “Yes, I lost a Test career, but what is a Test career compared to the suffering of 40mn people? Lots of people lost a great deal more in those years, and if by missing out on a Test career we played a part in changing an unjust system, then that is fine by me.”

Procter matched words with actions. He and other cricketers critical of apartheid issued a collective protest in 1971, urging the selection of South African players on merit, not colour or race. As white rule came to an end and South Africa was readmitted to world cricket, it was fitting that Procter was named the national team’s coach for the new era. In the Durban area where he spent his later years, he set up a foundation that assisted disadvantaged children.

Rihan Richards, South African cricket’s chief administrator, said: “His commitment to transforming the game, ensuring its growth among all sectors of our population, and mentoring hundreds of underprivileged youngsters in the Durban area, stands as a testament to his character and passion for cricket.”

Procter was born in Durban on September 15 1946 into a family passionate about cricket. As a youngster, he showed most promise as a batter, scoring one century after another in school cricket. He later equalled a world record shared by CB Fry, who played for England before the first world war, and Donald Bradman, the Australian generally regarded as the sport’s greatest player, by hitting six centuries in successive innings. Procter was also the first cricketer to score a hundred and take a hat-trick in the same game twice.

However, it is for his unusual right-arm bowling action that many cricket lovers will remember Procter. A rapid, deceptively ungainly whirl of arm and leg movements accompanied his release of the ball, often a fast, accurate inswinger that unsettled even the best batters, such as Viv Richards of the West Indies.

In 1969, Procter married Maryna Godwin, a South African tennis player. They had three children.

He played only seven Test matches but took an impressive 41 wickets at an average of 15.02. Less prolific as a batter, he scored 226 runs at an average of 25.11. Mark Nicholas, an English cricket commentator, rates Procter as one of the eight greatest post-second world war all-rounders, alongside Keith Miller, Garfield Sobers, Richard Hadlee, Imran Khan, Ian Botham, Kapil Dev and Procter’s post-apartheid compatriot Jacques Kallis.

Ali Bacher, who captained South Africa to its 1970 triumph, said he regarded Procter as one of the country’s all-time three best players, alongside Richards and Graeme Pollock. Procter was admired as a captain, too. Mike Brearley, one of England’s most astute captains, picked Procter as one of the 11 best he played against or watched, describing him as “considerate, aggressive and good-natured” with “an understanding of those less good than himself”.

Procter played much of his cricket for Gloucestershire, an English county team whose fortunes he improved so much that they were dubbed “Proctershire”. Wisden, the cricketers’ almanac, named him one of its five players of the year in its 1970 edition, writing: “He represents what the ancient game needs everywhere — a real personality, a gifted performer and, what is equally important, one who is seen to enjoy every minute on the field.”