A life lived for cricket, remembered far beyond the boundary – Dickie Bird, a true gentleman of the game, bows out

The hotel staff at the front desk took a brief look at the nonagenarian before saying apologetically, “Sir, I don’t have change. Would you mind making a digital payment?”

Dickie Bird, who loved calling himself a ‘young man at 92’, took out his wallet, brought out a few 100 pound notes and replied, “But lad, I am technically challenged. I can only give you cash…”

The response puzzled the young chap to no end. Eventually, he decided to seek help from his superior, who thankfully knew Bird as ‘a regular visitor at the hotel’.

As he was leaving the front desk, Bird fished out a nondescript mobile phone from his pocket and remarked, “Lad, I use this small, little annoying thing. If I had my way, I would have just thrown it away long ago. I can only make or receive calls. You tell me, how do I make digital payments?”

As I stood next to him on that rainy Sunday morning in July, waiting for our interview to start, Bird held my hand and said, “You know what, this technology has taken the fun out of umpiring. These days, we are overly dependent on technology for every little on-field decision.”

That was Bird. Straightforward, to the point, and with an unbiased dislike for all gizmos.

READ: Former international umpire Dickie Bird passes away at age 92

It was to be my fourth interview with him, and the first thing he said was to send him a copy of the chat once it appeared in print. Since he was 14, Bird had maintained a personal archive of newspaper clippings. “Even now, I read the newspapers and keep clippings of all the interesting stories and whatever they write about me,” he said, adding, “You have my address. You must send me the clipping (and not a link) of the story when it gets published… I’ll add it to my collection!”

Back then, no one could have imagined that it was going to be our last exchange. On Tuesday, when the news of his demise came in, barely a month after that detailed interview, it brought back tonnes of memories.

Former England wicketkeeper Jack Russell called Bird a ‘unique, one-off, and the greatest of umpires’. He stood out because of his wit, subtle humour and the urge to live. And that’s perhaps one of the reasons why he could brave the COVID pandemic, survive a stroke 15 years ago, and yet live all alone in his picturesque four-bedroom cottage overlooking the Pennines.

He lived a disciplined life, which meant regular exercise, jogging and walking. There were no dietary restrictions. In fact, he would drive down his Jaguar and visit the Wetherby Whaler takeaway on Fridays for scampi and onion rings. “I eat everything,” he said, stirring his coffee and adding more milk.

As we spoke, a few old friends dropped by to say hello, and some younger faces recognised him too. Bird cherished these moments, the kind of social interaction he missed deeply during the COVID-19 lockdown five summers ago.

The following day, he was set to travel to Scarborough to watch the County matches of his beloved Yorkshire. Whenever the club played away, Bird tried to accompany them. It gave him a chance to not only watch cricket but also to reconnect with coaches, club members, and friends.

In winter, he turned his attention to football. A lifelong member of Barnsley Football Club, he was a regular in the stands. Having played both cricket and football in his youth, Bird held both disciplines close to his heart. But as he put it, he was “married to cricket.”

In his playing days, Bird shared a dressing room with Geoffrey Boycott at the Barnsley Cricket Club before signing a professional contract with Yorkshire at 19, earning a retainer of up to £650. In the off-season, he worked as a travelling salesman for a sports goods store.

A couple of weeks before our meeting, Bird had self-admittedly spent some ‘lovely afternoons’ with his dear friends Sunil Gavaskar and Roger Binny during the India vs England first Test at Headingley, where the player’s pavilion is named after him. “Sunil is a lovely guy. Whenever he is in England, he makes it a point to visit me,” Bird said, reminiscing about that famous incident from 1974 when he gave Gavaskar a haircut during the Old Trafford Test.

Those memories cheered him up. But in more recent years, the silence at home was growing heavier. “Time flies. I am beginning to feel my age now,” he said.

But every time he felt lonely, he would go out for a walk and drive down to Leeds, without using a GPS, as he remembered all the roads by heart. And, it was cricket that kept him going. Having played 93 matches as a right-handed batter for Yorkshire and Leicestershire, Bird officiated in 66 Tests and 69 ODIs before retiring in 1996, during India’s Test at Lord’s, a match that marked the debuts of Sourav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid.

And until his last breath, he was indeed ‘in love’ with the game. His collection of cricket books and paper clippings would often take him back to those lush green fields, evoke nostalgia and offer a whiff of fresh air.

Cricket once gave him wings. It kept him afloat, forever.

Published on Sep 23, 2025