Sir Geoffrey Boycott pays tribute to ‘respected, admired and loved’ Dickie Bird

Sir Geoffrey Boycott has paid tribute to his friend of 70 years, the “respected, admired and loved” Dickie Bird.

Renowned former umpire Bird, one of the most recognisable figures in cricket, has died aged 92.

England and Yorkshire batting great Boycott struck up an enduring friendship with Bird when they were playing for Barnsley Cricket Club in the 1950s.

The 84-year-old recalled how Bird used to insist on calling him ‘Gerald’, despite his protestations.

“I would say, ‘my name’s not Gerald, it’s Geoffrey’,” said Boycott, writing in the Telegraph. “It made no difference telling him because he would then say, ‘OK, put the gloves on for me Gerald’.

Boycott revealed he last saw Bird earlier this summer.

“We chatted at Scarborough and Headingley. Dickie was getting about, and appeared happy and in good health,” he added.

“He passed away in his sleep, and I am glad he went that way, nice and peacefully, rather than suffering for a long time.

“Dickie was a character and he was always fun. He was respected, admired and loved. He will be given a fond farewell.

“Yorkshire are playing at Headingley on Wednesday and we will all be thinking of Dickie.”

Tributes have flooded in from the cricketing fraternity and beyond with Barnsley, his hometown football club, announcing they will hold a minute’s applause at their Carabao Cup tie against Brighton on Tuesday evening.

Former England captain Graham Gooch remembered with a smile the time he hit the beloved umpire with a straight drive.

Bird was in the middle when Gooch played his most famous Test innings, 333 against India at Lord’s in 1990.

But it was another match, against Australia at Old Trafford in 1985, which Gooch recalled fondly.

“He tried to get out of the way of the straight drive – but of course it hit him straight on the ankle,” Gooch told talkSPORT.

“He wasn’t averse to making a bit of a song and dance about things and he had to go off for treatment.

“We all remember him as a fantastic umpire, a brilliant umpire, well respected by players and fans all over the world.

“One of my abiding memory was things always happened to Dickie in the field.

“At Headingley once they had a leaking pipe, right where Dickie was standing. Coming up like a sprinkler. It could only happen to him.

“He got on with all the players. We didn’t always agree with his decisions, but he was a good umpire if you were a batter. You had to be plumb for him to give you out.”

Another former England captain, Michael Atherton, said Bird always had “a twinkle in his eye”.

He wrote in The Times: “He was a character, whose mannerisms endeared him to the crowds and players alike. All that, it must be stressed, came secondary to his craft.

“No one wants a clown of an umpire, who cannot get key decisions right, but Dickie was a first-class umpire — a ‘not-outer’ for sure, but consistent with it — who happened, quite coincidentally to his job, to be quirky, inadvertently humorous, warm and fundamentally decent.”

Atherton organised the unprecedented guard of honour with which England and India welcomed Bird for his 66th and final Test at Lord’s, a gesture that left the emotional Bird visibly moved.

Atherton added: “Wouldn’t you know it, having walked tearfully to the middle, Dickie wiped the moisture from his eyes and duly gave me out lbw fifth ball of the match to India’s fast bowler, Javagal Srinath. It must have been plumb.”

Bird umpired his first county match in 1970 and stood in the first of 66 Test matches three years later. He also umpired three World Cup finals.

The ECB said: “Everyone at the England and Wales Cricket Board is deeply saddened to hear of the passing of Dickie Bird.

“A proud Yorkshireman and a much-loved umpire, he will be sorely missed. Rest in peace, Dickie.”

ECB chief executive Richard Gould added: “Dickie was a much-loved character, who earned respect and admiration with his humility and charm.

“A proud Yorkshireman, a fine umpire and player who deeply cared about the game.”

Bird played for Yorkshire and then Leicestershire later in his career before turning to umpiring.

Leicestershire called him “a true cricketing icon whose contribution to the game will never be forgotten”.

Lindsay Hoyle, Speaker of the House of Commons and cricket fan, wrote on X: “Sad news, he was indeed a legend. My condolences to his family and friends.”