DURBAN - Amid the dark drama of the looting nightmare in Durban, there were some wonderfully bright moments, including one hilarious interaction between a former Springbok rugby captain and an all-time cricketing great.
The legendary Mike Procter was standing guard at a Durban North community barricade armed with his trusty Slazenger cricket bat (what else?!) when a suspicious vehicle approached...
Procter — talking to his Hilton College Old Boys group — relates the story: “I was standing with my bat in hand beside three guys who had proper stuff when a Range Rover made its way to the blockade... It was just about to go through the second block when the window slid down and a voice called out: “Proccie... I thought you were a bowler not a batsman. Very funny and it was Gary Teichmann!” — In all this chaos there can still be laughter!”
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But rugger bugger Teichmann clearly does not know his cricket. As one cricketing boffin pointed out: In the history of first-class cricket, there are only three batsmen who have made six consecutive centuries — the world’s best ever batsman in Australian Don Bradman (in 1938); Englishman CB Fry, way back in 1901; and South Africa’s Michael John Procter in 1971, the very guy that Teichmann didn't know could bat!!
But for Procter, his “innings” at the barricades made him as proud a South African as anything he ever achieved on the cricket field.
“It was incredibly moving to see South Africans from all communities, from all walks of life, getting stuck in together to protect our country,” he told Independent Media.
“When push came to shove, people rallied together with a common purpose. Every one of them is a hero. It was heart-warming, it truly was.”
IOL Sport
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