International career The ban on South Africa restricted his Test career to seven test match appearances, all against
Australia between 1967 and 1970. He took 41 Test
wickets at an average of 15.02, and with
Barry Richards and
Graeme Pollock helped South Africa to two successive series wins over Australia by margins of
3–1 and
4–0. Procter played for the
Rest of the World versus England in 1970, and took 15 wickets at an average of 23.93 in five test-format matches. In 1978–79, towards the end of his playing career, he played for the World XI in
Kerry Packer's
World Series Cricket in Australia. In the four "Supertests" in which he played he averaged 30.33 with the bat and 16.07 with the ball. He featured in the first semi-final for World XI side and he shared the new ball with the likes of
Imran Khan and
John Snow. He clean bowled West Indian veteran
Viv Richards with an unplayable delivery which he delivered from over the wicket. The delivery he bowled to Richards castled the middle stump out of the ground and it became a talking point at the time given the characteristic swagger of Richards. Procter also captained the Springbok team that played in three "tests" and three "one day internationals" against an
English rebel XI, led by
Graham Gooch, that toured South Africa in 1982. He revealed that he once came close to qualifying to play for the England national team in 1980, but his body was tired by the time such news apparently began to spread. However, he insisted that his callup to join England was merely speculation and was more of a ploy to allow Gloucestershire to sign another overseas player. He reached his record sixth successive century in first-class cricket playing for Rhodesia against
Western Province in 1971 and his century came at a vital time especially when Rhodesia was reeling at 5–2. He capitalized on a costly drop catch by Western Province captain
Andre Bruyns, who was on slip, when Procter had only scored two runs, and went on to make the most of the dropped chance by scoring 254 runs, which also turned out to be his highest-first-class score. Rhodesia went onto win that match by seven wickets. He played for and captained South Africa in one
unofficial "Test". The team was occasionally referred to in jest as "Proctershire". His chest-on pace bowling lifted Gloucestershire to second in 1969 as he contributed more than 100 wickets for the club in the same season. Procter scored 109 not out in Gloucestershire's 135/3 in the 1972
John Player League – the lowest team total in
List A cricket to include a century. He destroyed Worcestershire single-handedly in 1977, scoring a century before lunch and taking 13 wickets for 73 runs. He scored another century before lunch in 1979, against Leicestershire, winning the
Walter Lawrence Trophy for the season's fastest century, and then ripped through their batsmen with a
hat-trick. In the next game against Yorkshire he took another hat-trick, all leg-before-wicket. In August 1979, he also famously smashed six successive sixes off the bowling of Somerset's
Dennis Breakwell, albeit not in the same over. Mike Procter also produced a spell for the ages by grabbing everyone's attention capturing 4 wickets in 5 balls playing for Gloucestershire against Hampshire in a crucial semi-final match during the 1977 Benson and Hedges Cup. He ripped through the top order of Hampshire's batting lineup which also included the prized scalps of his fellow South African
Barry Richards and West Indian opener
Gordon Greenidge. As captain, he led Gloucestershire to the
Benson & Hedges Cup in 1977, as director of coaching he guided
Northamptonshire CCC to victory in the 1989–90 NatWest Trophy final, His unusual action generated late inswing that, in the right conditions, could at times be unplayable. He bowled at high pace in his prime but later in his career knee problems caused by the impact of his bull-like body on the bowling crease forced him to turn to off-spin, which he mastered. He had a fearsome bouncer in his repertoire and he also possessed the skill of swinging the ball late. His muscular batting in the middle order was famed for its power, although based on a sound defence. He was described by Wisden as "One of the rare cricketers who could have found a place in any test team as either a batsman or bowler and who could win a game single-handed with bat or ball in his hand". ==Post-retirement involvement in cricket==