South Africa Cricket Legend Mike Procter Dies Aged 77

"He suffered a complication during surgery and while in ICU went into cardiac arrest. He became unconscious and unfortunately never woke up," his wife Maryna told South African website News24.

Procter was a fast bowler and also a hard-hitting batter who represented South Africa in seven Tests. His international career was stunted due to apartheid.

Upon their return to 1991, he led his country to the World Cup following by taking them to the semi-finals.

Procter was appointed by the International Cricket Council's (ICC) panel of referees. During his time as the ICC referee, he was the referee during the controversial match between India and Australia in Sydney 2008. The famous 'Monkeygate' scenario caught the whole cricketing world by surprise and Procter had even stated his own version in his book 'Caught In The Middle'.

"It was very disappointing. If he had said that (him hearing Harbhajan say 'teri ma ki' and not monkey) upfront, it would have been a whole different version. If Sachin had said that he had heard this, it was to be one person's word against the other. It was going to create doubt and so he (Harbhajan) would not be (held) guilty on racism charges."

Shedding more light on the incident, Procter wrote: "The words 'monkey' and 'ma ki', heard 22 yards away, must sound very similar, and that entire episode could have been a high-profile case of lost in translation. But Tendulkar never came forward with that version to us in the initial hearing, which left me with very little choice."

Procter played 401 first class games, scoring 21,936 runs at an average of 36.01 with 48 hundreds and 109 fifties. He also took 1,417 wickets at an average of 19.53.

(With Agency inputs)