BestUmpires

Dickie Bird - A Legendary Umpire in cricket history

Harold Dennis "Dickie" Bird, popularly known as Dickie Bird. Born on April 19, 1933 in Yorkshire, he went on to become one of cricket  greatest and legendary umpire.

He was a school dropout and for a while he worked in a coal mine in his early days but gave it up and set out for a career in sports.

Dickie Bird first passion was football which he had to stop due to his knee injury .Then he followed his second love, cricket and started playing county cricket for Yorkshire.

After his county career, he coached and played league cricket before taking up umpiring activities.  He stood in his first county cricket in 1970. Later after three years, Dickie Bird officiated in his first  test match between England and New Zealand in Headingley Stadium in Leeds. He officiate as a umpire in 66 test matches which was once upon a time a record and has umpired in 69 ODI’s. Umpire Dickie Bird umpired in three world cup finals-1975, 1979 and 1983. He was appointed Member of the order of the British Empire (MBE) in 1986 and received the Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 2012 for his contributions to the game of cricket and charity. In his last test match in 1996, the two team India and England gave him a guard of honour. In 1998, he stood in his last county match. His strength of managing and earning respect from some of the more volatile players in the game was remarkable which take Dickie Bird in the pool of cricket greatest umpire.