(Cricket News) Mike Procter, the renowned all-round player and South Africa’s first post-Apartheid coach, passed away at the age of 77 due to complications from heart surgery. Procter, who is widely regarded as one of his nation’s finest players, played just seven Test matches in his international career, all of which came against Australia in 1966–1967 and 1969–1970. This was because of South Africa’s sporting isolation in the 1970s and 1980s.

But in those, he took 41 wickets at a rate of 15.02, bowling with exceptional seam and swing that was renowned for being delivered “off the wrong foot”—that is, releasing the ball early in his delivery stride, quickly, and frequently from unusual angles, wide on the crease or from around the wicket.

His finest stats, 6 for 73, came in the second innings of his final Test match at Port Elizabeth, where he helped South Africa win by a crushing 323 runs. He played in seven Test matches, with the other one ending in a draw.

Procter was also a very good ball-striker; in the second of his two Test series, he averaged 34.83 and led South Africa’s lost generation, which included Barry Richards, Graeme and Peter Pollock, captain Ali Bacher, and a historic 4-0 thumping of Bill Lawry’s Australia in 1969–70.

His best results, though, were confined to domestic cricket after that. He played for Rhodesia in the Currie Cup, first for Natal, and most notably for Gloucestershire, where he was a mainstay for 14 seasons between 1968 and 1981.

He played for Gloucestershire in 259 first-class matches during that period, amassing 14,441 runs at 36.19, including 32 hundreds and a career-best 209 against Essex in 1978. He also claimed 833 wickets at 19.56, including his best-ever eight-for-thirty against Worcestershire at New Road in 1979.

However, his four wickets in five balls in the 1977 Benson & Hedges Cup semi-final at Southampton, where he tormented Hampshire’s best batting team, including their illustrious opening duo of Gordon Greenidge and fellow South African Richards, stands out as one of his most remarkable achievements.

Following that performance, Gloucestershire went to Lord’s and defeated Kent. However, he had previously assisted the team in winning their first trophy of the 20th century in the Gillette Cup final in 1973 after a brilliant all-around performance of 94 and 2 for 27 had defeated Sussex.

After a 103-wicket season for Gloucestershire in 1969, he was named one of Wisden’s five Cricketers of the Year in 1970. In August of 1979, at Taunton, he made another unique entry into the record books when he hit Somerset’s Dennis Breakwell for six consecutive sixes, though not in the same over.

Once back in South Africa, he followed in the footsteps of Don Bradman and CB Fry, hitting six hundreds in a row, beginning on New Year’s Day 1971 against North Eastern Transvaal with 174 off 203 balls and including a career-high 254 against West Province.

Procter was appointed as the team’s head coach following South Africa’s readmission to international cricket. He oversaw the team’s historic comeback to Test cricket against the West Indies in Bridgetown and their 1992 World Cup campaign, where he led the team to the semi-finals before they were defeated by England in Sydney due to the tournament’s infamous rain rules.

Later, he was South Africa’s convenor of selectors and officiated ICC matches from 2002 to 2008. He left behind his wife Maryne and two daughters when he passed away at a hospital close to his Durban home.

See also: Aaron Hardie Sidelined from New Zealand Tour.