Proctor has such prodigious talent that it is hard to know in which of my somewhat vague categories to put him. Obviously he is an all-rounder of the highest class, but he could well go among the big hitters, certainly can keep company with some of the fastest scoring batsmen of all time, but could just as easily rest amongst the batting stylists.
He should, however, be included in any anthology of batsmen for one specific trait. That is the high ratio of boundaries to any other form of score. . . Statistically there could be a number of reasons for such an imbalance. Unless you were to know otherwise, it could be that he was a very slow or indifferent runner between wickets, whereas the truth is very much the opposite. It could be that he was merely a slogger applying maximum power to every shot on a hit or miss basis. Neither of these possibilities is anywehere near the mark. The truth lies nearer to straightforward technique and basic ability.
To illustrate this . . for the Rest of the World Under Sobers). . There were a fair number of runs already on board, Proctor's job was to push the score along. When he played an absolutely passive dead bat to the first few deliveries the bowler might have thought he was to be let off lightly. With hardly much ado the next two balls went sizzling to the boundariy, then that impassive block again, then two more crashing blows. Each ball was played strictly on merit and the slightest hint of a scoring opportunity was turned to immediate and maximum profit.
With some lesser players a tendency to wait and wait for a bad ball to hit for four is the worst possib;e contribution to an effective bating partnership with the man at the other end, especially when the said player, having waited for five balls, is desperate for a single off the sixth! No such criticism could ever be levelled at Proctor because he was never long in waiting for the ball that could turn into a boundary scoring opportunity.
For this reason it must be said that his batting lacks a certain fluency which would typify an innings by Graveney or Cowdrey perhaps. There is a certain staccato element, or should I say a hint, of the big drum being beaten from time to time rather than the far more constant song of the violin. Such an analogy is, of course, altogether too disparaging. It would take a dedicated musician indeed to go to a concert just to hear the bass drummer, whereas Proctor has always been high on my list of batsmen who were eminently worth watching. If I had the choice on any given day of watching either him or barry Richards, I think I would settle the matter with the toss of a coin, and, of course, in their historical time and place they rank together.
The tributes have fallen thick and fast. Here is Peter Pollock:
"The timing and sheer grace as the left foot moves forward, followed by a high back-lift and a precision down-swing, seems as effortless as a gazelle bounding through the open veldt. One could even assume that Mike could play the cover drive before he started walking. . . It is rather strange that Mike Proctor the bowler should be so much more unorthodox and that his batting, fielding, throwing and catching should ooze textbook method and charm."
Alan Gibson:
"Proctor's development as a cricketer has been much influenced by Gloucestershire, because Gloucestershire in his time have needed a hundred wickets (much) more than two thousand runs. In South Africa where he scored his six successive centuries in 1970-71 (equalling the record of Fry and Bradman), he has always been able to do more justice to his batting. Even so, I have always felt, Gloucestershire put him in too high in the order. He has great strength, but he is mortal, and nobody can be expected to take all the wickets and score all the runs on seven days of a week."
It has been suggested that, without denying Proctor's great abilities, he is something of a slogger in the manner of the immortal Jessop. For example his longest innings in 1979 was 122 in 104 minutes but writes Wisden Cricket Monthly -
'nobody who has ever seen him bat could possibly suggest that his bat is anything but straight. His hitting in the air is deliberate and don't let us forget that when the ball is struck hard and high no fielder, Derek Randall included, can do much about it. His favourite area is the arc between cover and dead staright - not an area where sloggers usually specialise. . . Yes, the great Gilbert Jessop himself, scorer of twelve hundreds in under an hour, would have approved of Mike Proctor. . . Rumour has it that Jessop scored his runs at a remarkable 80 runs an hour. Well, in the last four matches of 1879, Proctor usually exceeded that rate.
