Mike Procter Opens Up On Racism In South Africa

Mike Procter was no stranger to racism when he was accused of favouring the ‘white’ Australians ahead of Indians during the infamous monkeygate that had marred India’s tour Down Under in 2008.

The former ICC match referee and South Africa all-rounder got a taste of racism way back in 1971 when as a member of the Rest of South Africa team against Transvaal, he staged a walkout along with the likes of Graeme Pollock and Barry Richards to protest South African cricket association’s interference in selection policies.

Recalling those days, the South African legend insists that the menace of racism is still alive in South Africa. In fact, Procter reveals that the colour-based discrimination makes its way in the African country right from the early stage of an individual’s life.

“At school-level cricket in South Africa, two bowlers of the same colour cannot open an attack. Be it two whites or two blacks, it won’t work. There’s got to be a bowler of different colour from each end,” Procter was quoted as saying by The Times of India.

“What’s the definition of racism? It is certainly not about whites against blacks. Prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism directed against someone of a different race based on the belief that one’s own race is superior is racism,” he added.

To back his claim, Procter cited the example of quota in the South African team.

“There have to be six non-white cricketers, regardless of who should fit in by way of performance,” he said.

Racism did not leave Procter even when he was serving as match-referee far away from the African shores in Australia.  After some awful umpiring decisions marred the Sydney Test between India and Australia, most of which went against the visitors, tensions reached a boiling point when the hosts alleged that Harbhajan Singh had called Andrew Symonds a monkey. Both the teams could not bury the hatchet, and the case was forwarded to the International Cricket Council (ICC) by the hosts. It eventually led to a three-match ban for the India off-spinner with Procter delivering the verdict.

The South African was slammed by the Indian community with former skipper Sunil Gavaskar even accusing him of favouring the white man over the brown man.

“By accepting the word of the Australian players and not the Indian players, the match referee has exposed himself to the charge of taking a decision based not on facts, but on emotion,” Gavaskar had written in a column at that time.

“Worse still, his decision has incensed millions of Indians, who are quite understandably asking why his decision should not be considered a racist one, considering the charges that were levied on Harbhajan were of a racist remark.

“Millions of Indians want to know if it was a ‘white man’ taking the ‘white man’s’ word against that of the ‘brown man.’

“Quite simply if there was no audio evidence nor did the officials hear anything then the charge did not stand,” he had added.

Well, Procter is yet to come to terms with those allegations and call them shattering.

“I was told I believed in a white man’s story and not a brown man’s story. It was shattering. The first big disappointment was the total non-acceptance that Indians can be racist,” he said.

Procter’s autobiography ‘Caught in the Middle’ has now been released in which he has spoken in detail about the infamous incident. The former all-rounder is still not convinced with the testimony that Sachin Tendulkar gave during the incident that changed the course of the hearing and has written in detail about what happened behind the scenes.

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