Mike Procter … a flag smuggler and greatest all-rounder
On July 21 1994, SA started their first Test match at Lord’s a day short of 29 years after their previous one at the “home of cricket”. There were plenty of nerves but three members of the squad with the most experience of the venue rose valiantly to the occasion as the tourists won by an emphatic 356 runs.
Kepler Wessels scored 105, Allan Donald took 5/74 and Mike Procter smuggled the national flag into the ground to ensure it was flown prominently when victory was a fact late on the fourth evening.
It’s easy to forget, 30 years later, that the new flag had been unveiled less than three months earlier. Many white South Africans were still sceptical, if not scathing, about the future. The flag represented confirmation that the future really was here to stay.
Regulations and “traditions” at Lord’s can be painful and withering. It remains the only international cricket venue in the world where spectators can take their own bottles of wine and glasses as long as they dress “appropriately”. The usual ban on flags, banners and placards was enhanced in 1994 after a couple of old SA flags were spotted in the stands.
“It’s the usual Lord’s bullshit,” muttered Proccie after being asked not to hang the new flag over the dressing room balcony after day one. “There is no way this flag isn’t going to be seen by the world.” And so it was, then removed from the railings after victory and handed to Krish Mackerdhuj and Ali Bacher to wave together after the win.
NATION BUILDING
When it was suggested to him, in jest, much later that evening that he might be remembered more for defying the Lord’s regulations and kick-starting what was later to be termed “nation building” than anything he achieved on the field, he replied: “I bloody well hope so.” And those achievements were astonishing.
This tribute to the late, great Michael John Procter, who died on Saturday at the age of 77, was intended to be about the man rather than numbers. But suffice it to say that 1,417 wickets at an average of 19.53 in 401 firstclass matches, allied to 21,936 runs with 48 centuries, makes him the most productive allrounder in the history of cricket.
The debate about the standard and intensity of the game in different eras which so often clouds comparisons of great players never enters the conversation about Procter. He was unmatchable in his prime, awesome either side of it and still brilliant when bowling offspin in his twilight playing years* once the famously long run-up had taken its toll on his knees.
Barry Richards, 10 months older, grew up with Procter in Durban and they played, for and against each other, for almost 60 years, two of the greatest cricketers of all time. Apartheid-induced isolation meant they played just four and seven Test matches, respectively, but both ensured that history would record their potential should they have played more. A lot more. Richards scored 508 runs at a 72 average and Procter gathered up 41 wickets at a cost of just 15 runs each.
“He knew from an early age how different his pace and skill was,” said Richards, a day after his friend’s final departure. “Proccie was barely 20, bowling to Henry Fotheringham on his debut, batting at six. I was at the non-striker’s end. A nervous Fothers lunged forward at his first ball and missed it. Proccie said: ‘Oh, Larry the Lunger at six? This’ll be good.’ He brought square leg into short leg.
“Next ball was predictably short and Fothers lunged forward again before gloving it over short leg’s head to get off the mark. Proccie waited for him to shakily complete the run before saying, with a wide grin, ‘well played, I thought I had you there for a moment’.”
He could be venomous, but history recounts he never bit first. Batsmen quickly learnt that Procter would play hard and fair — unless they didn’t.
He was appointed SA’s first coach on their return to international cricket and oversaw a remarkable, unexpected run to the semifinal in the 1992 World Cup having been added to the tournament just a few months earlier. He was a “mentor” more than a coach and the players loved him all the more for being so.
Later he became an ICC match referee and was dogged by controversy, presiding over some of the game’s biggest controversies, including Pakistan’s forfeiture of a Test match after ball-tampering accusations and India’s threat to abandon a Test series in Australia amid claims of racism.
He loved the camaraderie of the team and, like many career players, sought to recreate that environment after his playing days. Never was that more obvious, or important, than when he tried to “do my bit” to bring his country together in the fledgling days of its new democracy.