Mike Proctor, former South Africa all-rounder and coach dies aged 77

Legendary South African all-rounder Mike Proctor has passed away, her wife confirmed the news to South African press late on Saturday after complications during heart surgery. He was 77.

Procter is survived by wife Maryne and two daughters.

“He suffered a complication during surgery and while in ICU went into cardiac arrest. He became unconscious and unfortunately never woke up,” his wife Maryna told South African website News24.

Procter is considered as a Test great despite a short international career, abbreviated due to South Africa’s sporting isolation from the 1970s and 1980s. He played seven Test matches, all against Australia, taking 41 wickets at an impressive average of 15.02.

He was named as one of Wisden’s five Cricketers of the Year in 1970, after a 103-wicket season for Gloucestershire in 1969, and at Taunton in August 1979, he secured another niche entry in the record books by slamming Somerset’s Dennis Breakwell for six consecutive sixes, albeit not in the same over.

But upon their return in 1991, he led the side as coach, taking them to the semi-finals of the World Cup in Australia the following year.

Procter also became a match referee, a position where controversy followed him. He was the referee at the Oval in 2006 when Pakistan forfeited the Test after the umpires penalised them for ball tampering. In 2008, he was the referee at Sydney and banned Indian off spinner Harbhajan Singh for three matches on charges of racism – a decision which was overturned later. He stepped down from the post in 2008 and became South Africa’s convener of selectors.

He was later also appointed to the International Cricket Council’s panel of match referees and also served as South Africa’s convener of selectors.

Procter played 401 first class games, scoring 21,936 runs at an average of 36.01 with 48 hundreds and 109 fifties. He also took 1,417 wickets at an average of 19.53.

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