Dickie Bird, 80 not out
Dickie Bird was one of the most loveable and respected figures in the game. On the occasion of his 80th birthday, The Telegraph's Simon Briggs sat down with the legend to discuss his time in the game and how it has evolved in the modern era.
18-Apr-2013
In an umpiring career that spanned almost three decades, Dickie Bird became one of the game's most loveable and respected characters, a genuine friend to all cricketers. Bird turns 80 on April 19 and despite not being as robust as before, he still remains passionate about cricket, writes Simon Briggs in the Telegraph.
The carers have left and Bird is independent again, still living in the house that he bought as Yorkshire's opening batsman in the 1960s. Today, it has become a shrine to the persona he inhabited for another three decades after that. "Dickie Bird here, Test match umpire," he still likes to say, when he rings up to discuss the latest local prospect - or, more likely, the evils of the TV review. The walls are covered with photographs of Bird himself, standing in his white cap behind the stumps as Richard Hadlee, or Kapil Dev, or Imran Khan roars in to bowl. The desk carries a miniature version of the statue erected to him in the centre of Barnsley. "It stands on the exact spot where I was born, 100 yards from the town hall - trips come from all over to see my statue and go around the market."