Mike Procter interview

[aussie tragic]

It was 1980 when he became available and we were due to tour West Indies, and had Procter been selected that would have been that

Ah, missed by 10 years....I don't need to check the records to know Botham had a lock on the allrounder slot, as was Willis and Dilley locked in as bowlers

 

[vic_orthdox]

As fred alludes to though, I believe the political nature of his selection would also have been controversial, heading to the Windies and all. I think there was a CW front page story about it not long ago (fredfertang may have written it, can't remember).

 

[weldone]

I'm a little surprised that Procter underplays that story. When the incident happened the end was in sight. International opposition to apartheid was becoming overwhelming and the last hope was that an invitation to send a touring party to Australia in 1971/72 would not be withdrawn. The South African Cricket Association knew that if the tour was to go ahead then something would have to change and they sought permission from the Government to select the two leading non-white cricketers for the touring party. They were, of course, turned down.

As a last throw of the dice the players themselves decided to make that public demonstration in support of the Association. The stage they chose was Newlands where, as part of the tenth anniversary celebrations of the founding of the Republic, a match was to be played between the Currie Cup Champions, Transvaal, and a Rest of South Africa side. The touring team for Australia was due to be announced at the end of the game. The initial plan had been to simply boycott the match but they took a rather different tack in the end.

The Transvaal side batted first and Procter opened the bowling for the Rest. He sent down the first delivery of the match to Barry Richards who took a comfortable single from it. Immediately the single was completed all of the players headed straight back to the pavilion leaving both umpires and the large crowd confused. What the players then did was to hand a statement to the press box after which they returned to the middle and the game continued.

The statement said: "We cricketers feel that the time has come for an expression of our views. We fully support the South African Cricket Association's application to include non-whites on the tour to Australia if good enough and, furthermore, subscribe to merit being the only criteria on the cricket field".

Good to know this..

What an excellent interview, and it's interesting to hear what a well-balanced guy he is. But there's a real sadness to it. When he's asked what his highlight is, and he says, "winning the tests", and you immediately know precisely which series he must be talking about because his Test career was so bloody short, that rams it home. What a pity that such a great player should miss out on such a great career, and that the world should have missed out on it too. But as he himself is man enough to point out, what's that compared with the suffering of a nation?


p.s. I was just wondering if there was any footage of him bowling on YouTube. And no marks for guessing which CW legend has posted some.

Good post

Gavaskar is overly patriotic and particularly bitter with respect to Australia and England for whatever reasons during his playing days and some of the things he says to that respect these days are cringeworthy. That does have naught to do with Casteism, though.

He is fine when he talks about the Windies for example and even seems to love the place, but his other side comes out when you are talking about some other countries, and the reasoning he then gives to justify his opinions is again stretched. Meanwhile, someone like Tony Greig seems the opposite after his ICL experience.

Same happened during this incident, with him making the racism charge on Proctor, which was ludicrous and without basis. But that doesn't mean either that Proctor made the right decision, based on the evidence available to him which was One man's word vs Another.

AWTA

 

[zaremba]

It was 1980 when he became available and we were due to tour West Indies, and had Procter been selected that would have been that

TBH Proccy at age 44 would have been a significantly better bet than Chris Lewis or David Capel at their peak

 

[zaremba]

Having read the interview, im reminded by what hate leads to, more hate. Being black myself i have never faced direct rasicm but the effect still remains. In black areas the inequalities are still huge, its going to take a longer period to change things. All the black africans to play for the Proteas have had to have played at traditional white schools to make it. And as for the era of Procter and co, wow the team would have been awsome. Rice and Procter as allrounders, Le Roux and Jèffries as the spearheads. Add Vince Van Der Bijl and the bowling would be legendary.

Great post.

Not come across Jèffries before - what can you tell us about him?

 

[fredfertang]

TBH Proccy at age 44 would have been a significantly better bet than Chris Lewis or David Capel at their peak

He was 34 as it was 1980, so you're be talking about the likes of Chris Old, Graham Stevenson and Robin Jackman so yes you're quite right, but the WIndies wouldn't have accepted a party that contained his name (remember what happened to Jackman in Guyana) so he couldn't really be selected

 

[smash84]

what happened to Jackman in Guyana?

 

[fredfertang]

what happened to Jackman in Guyana?

You should keep up with the front page Smali - the story is here

 

[smash84]

to be honest I rarely visit the front page

 

[smash84]

a very nice read

 

[chicane]

Gavaskar is overly patriotic and particularly bitter with respect to Australia and England for whatever reasons during his playing days and some of the things he says to that respect these days are cringeworthy. That does have naught to do with Casteism, though.

He is fine when he talks about the Windies for example and even seems to love the place, but his other side comes out when you are talking about some other countries, and the reasoning he then gives to justify his opinions is again stretched. Meanwhile, someone like Tony Greig seems the opposite after his ICL experience.

Same happened during this incident, with him making the racism charge on Proctor, which was ludicrous and without basis. But that doesn't mean either that Proctor made the right decision, based on the evidence available to him which was One man's word vs Another.

Can't absolve racism from his bitterness though, be it his numerous white man comments or the bit in his autobio about WI crowds.

Agreed about Harbhajan, he more likely said "maa ki" and because of the crowd incidents the Aussie players latched onto it. There was also not enough evidence.

About racism in India, lets not pretend it's not widespread. From my experience though, being called a monkey in India is not necessarily a racist slur. Was a shameful episode nonetheless and the Indian players coming out against it would have had a very strong impact. Indian crowd behavior is generally appalling and more needs to be done to contain/improve the situation, and the players are best placed to make a difference.

 

[chicane]

Great interview.

 

[dhillon28]

The sad truth is that one of the greatest batsmen of all time is a nasty piece of work. He's the real racist - just read his autobiography in which he used the behaviour of the Kingston crowd in 1976 to justify his view that Black people "still belonged to the jungles and forests". An all-round slimeball. Not surprising at all that he should have been one of Harbhajan's most ardent defenders.

As for Procter, the Pollocks, Barry Richards, Garth Le Roux and the other South Africans who played in the era of the apartheid ban, I have enormous sympathy for them and am unaware of anything to suggest that they shared Gavaskar's repulsive views, victimised or took advantage of the oppressed peoples of SA or even supported the policies of the regime they lived under.

For Gavaskar to accuse Procter of racism in this instance was not only monstrously hypocritical but a textbook case of projecting one's own repellent traits onto others. Thank goodness his double standards were recognised and pointed out at the time.

This is just pathetic. No proof of what Harbhajan said and just based on the statements of a couple of larger louts like Ponting and Symonds (who both proved in the same test match that they lacked credibility) u are wiling to label Harbhajan with a disgusting word.

 

[Straight Drive]

This is just pathetic. No proof of what Harbhajan said and just based on the statements of a couple of larger louts like Ponting and Symonds (who both proved in the same test match that they lacked credibility) u are wiling to label Harbhajan with a disgusting word.

+1.

Symonds, Mcgrath and co were champions at provoking and hurling abuse and when someone returned the favour they went crying to their mommies. Never had any Sympathy for Symonds for the overblown monkeygate saga, he chose to make a big deal of it and it backfired.

Don't provoke and abuse others if you can't handle it yourself. Harbhjan may or may not have called him a monkey, but short tempered people are not going to sit there analysing their responses in the heat of the moment, that is what happened with Harbhajan and Symonds and co tried to milk it to their benefit (mental disintegration) and it backfired.

Btw I found the crowd behavior of taunting Symonds with monkey imitations a lot more disgusting, and it hardly got any mention. Those people should have been publicly flogged and shamed.


And oh both have moved on since then and were even team mates at Mumbai Indians, go figure.

 

[silentstriker]

Harbhajan was a racist, and made an overtly racist comment - reporting that is hardly whining, and it's ridiculous when your own board abandons you because of it.

 

[smash84]

+1.

Symonds, mcgrath and co were champions at provoking and hurling abuse and when someone returned the favour they went crying to their mommies. Never had any sympathy for symonds for the overblown monkeygate saga, he chose to make a big deal of it and it backfired.

don't provoke and abuse others if you can't handle it yourself. Harbhjan may or may not have called him a monkey, but short tempered people are not going to sit there analysing their responses in the heat of the moment, that is what happened with harbhajan and symonds and co tried to milk it to their benefit (mental disintegration) and it backfired.

Btw i found the crowd behavior of taunting symonds with monkey imitations a lot more disgusting, and it hardly got any mention. Those people should have been publicly flogged and shamed.


And oh both have moved on since then and were even team mates at mumbai indians, go figure.

+2

 

[weldone]

Harbhajan was a racist, and made an overtly racist comment

When?

 

[weldone]

this is just pathetic. No proof of what harbhajan said and just based on the statements of a couple of larger louts like ponting and symonds (who both proved in the same test match that they lacked credibility) u are wiling to label harbhajan with a disgusting word.

+1.

+2

+3

 

[silentstriker]

When?

You can choose to be obtuse, but what happened to crowds in India was racism, and if Harbhajan said it, which I believe he did, then that too was racist, making him, Harbhajan, a racist.

As much I don't like Symonds, I feel so bad for how he was treated by the Indian fans, and then by his own board. You can not like him, but that doesn't give you the right to attack his race. It was despicable and frankly the entire Indian team when they chose not to publically stand up for him, went down in my estimation.

I said the same thing about Lehmann and Gibbs by the way. The main difference being, and why I think what Symonds had to go through was worse, was because it was directed at him personally, and then he was left out in the cold in favor of commercial considerations. I'm happy he got a good gig in the IPL. I hope he can move on and have success in other endevours. He was right to feel very hard done by. In his position, I would have been pissed too.

 

[weldone]

...if Harbhajan said it, which I believe he did....

Not good enough a reason, sorry.

In fact it is much more likely that he said 'Maa ki'. I don't know if your eyes (and ears too - because you accused me of being obtuse) are so good that you could distinguish between the 2 just by lip-reading from a television set, but I couldn't. Sorry again.

And for personal reasons, I would believe someone like Tendulkar more than someone like Symonds in this case. Though that's a personal choice, and a minor point.