Tribute to Mike Procter on 75th birthday-Would he have been best ever allrounder in a proper international career?

[Harsh Thakor]

Today legendary cricketer Mike Procter turns75.Had his international cricketer not been terminated or curtailed because of apartheid policies of South Africa,Procter may well have been the greatest all rounder ever after Sobers.For a while after retirement of Sobers he was the world's best all rounder.In terms of all-round cricketing prowess Procter was 2nd only to Sobers.Considering he was a genuinely quick pace bowler,at his best he may well have been the greatest match-winner amongst allrounders.Few cricketers struck more lightning and thunder on a cricket field.To me he would secure a permanent place amongts cricket's greatest entertainers.

 

Procter was athleticism and agression personified .Perhaps in terms of natural talent,he was in the Gary Sobers class.Mike Procter playing against Gary Sobers to me came close to cricket's greatest spectacle.

 

Few ever carried bat more like a bludgeon or delivered such striking blows.In full flow Procter could create the impact of a hurricane with the bat.However it was not at the cost of sound technique.Procter could reveal the organization of an architect in his strokes,being a master of the cover drive.With his batting prowess I would have backed him to swing the fortunes of game more than even Botham ,Imran or Kallis.At his best few batted more majestically than Procter.,Procter scored 6 centuries in succession for Rhodesia in the Currie Cup,resembling an invincible emperor.His knock of 203 in 1978 against Essex in 165 innings was compared to the very best innings of Walter Hammond,taking batting domination to regions rarely transcended.

 

Even though he posessed a most unorthodox,front on action ,few paceman were more lethal in full flow as Procter.One was reminded of a bull charging in .He was master at blending pace with movement both ways.He released the ball with a high straight arm,his chest facing the batsman and his front foot still in the air.Few bowlers were ever better proponents of the inswinger,and arguably Procter with his action did not need an outswinger in his armoury.In the view of Doug Walters "His leg-cutter mostly seamed inwards to the right handers rather than away,but could be unplayable when it gripped and seamed away."Quoting Mark Nicholas "His arms worked like helicopter blades and the ball flew at the batsmen as if propelled by machine; it would swing and skid, but when he rolled his fingers across the seam, it would bite and cut.",His unplayable inswing enabled him to capture 4 first class hat tricks in the 1970's ,In the 1977 Benson and Hedges semi-final at Southampton he exhibited one of pace bowling's most dazzling or penetrative exhibitions,taking four wickets in 5 balls,including trapping both Gordon Greenidge and Barry Richards in front.

 

Amazingly Procter could also bowl effective offspin,on turning tracks.,or when wickets were not conducive to pace.

 

With his exceptional prowess I may have back Procter to more consistently turn matches than even Ian Botham or Jacques Kallis.In Kerry Packer cricket against the best of opposition he excelled.Australian fans got echoes of Keith Miller and Gary Sobers when he was on the field.He averaged 18.6 with the ball and 34 with the bat,in 3 games.It was hard to visualize even Botham surpassing that,considering stature of the opposition.Had Procter played for South Africa after it's return in 1991 or later years,I feel he would have been even more impactful than Kallis.I can't express how much I wish Procter playing against the best West Indies team of Clive Lloyd,,to ressurect South Africa from the grave.It is notable that In 2 games when Procter scalped hat tricks,he capped it with  centuries.

 

In first class cricket,Mike Procter is 2nd only to Gary Sobers,statistically.He scored 21936 runs at an avergae of 36.01 and captured 1417 wickets at 19.53.In the only 7 test matches he played he scored 226 run sat 25.11 and captured 41 wickets at 15.02.Christopher Martin Jenkins ranks him as the 68th best cricketer of all time.Late John Woodcock ranked him at 43rd place amongst his 100 best cricketers of all time,above the likes of even Alan Border,,Kapil Dev and Greg Chappell.

 

 

A very sound judge of the game who held Viv Richards,Graeme Pollock,Barry Richards,Gary Sobers,Ian Botham,Sunil Gavaskar ,Zaheer Abbas and Michael Holding in the highest esteem.

I appreciate that Procter has no regrets about his being barred in the 1970's and 80's from International cricket feeling that humanity was more important than cricket and South Africa had to pay the price for it.

 

As an adminstrator and coach he played an important role in shaping South Africa to be the leading test nation for a period and unofficially the best one day team in the world.To this day he radiates great positivity to the game.I would class him amongst the least racist administrators who has promoted coloured people into the nucleus or domains of South African cricket.

 

Edited September 15, 2021 by Harsh Thakor

[zen]

Procter is already considered as talented as Imran, Hadlee, Botham, and Dev. A missing piece from that group due to the exclusion of SA. Let’s leave it at that.