Dickie Bird and Dennis Lillee's curious cricket relationship

Dennis tells PL about the umpire he considered the best in the business

He may have been reluctant to give LBWs, but Dickie Bird’s got his finger up here to give Gordon Greenidge run out in the ‘83 World Cup the moment the bails dislodge

Harold Dennis “Dickie” Bird (19 April 1933 – 22 September 2025)

Before the introduction of a third umpire, Dickie Bird claimed he had an almost foolproof method of adjudicating any issue involving a fielder and the boundary.

If ever there is any doubt in my mind, I run from the centre of the field ninety yards or so — no way can you tell from there — and I look the player straight in the eye and I say, ‘Young man, I want you to tell the truth. Did you catch that ball fairly inside the boundary, or did you touch the rope? I am a Christian and a churchgoer, and I want you to be honest with me. The good Lord is looking down on us and I don’t want you to tell any lies.

If you are having visions of Larry David’s amusing attempts to ascertain the truth from a reluctant witness, then you’re on the right track. Dickie was a man every bit as unique as Curb Your Enthusiasm’s David.

Once upon a time, your umpire stood as judge, jury and executioner for all that took place on a cricket field. The job description has changed with large parts of the skill involved in adjudicating run outs, controversial catches, the amount of light or lack of it, the bowler’s front foot fall, stumpings, bump balls, and boundary calls all essentially outsourced to machines and consultants.

Most pernicious of all is the use of predictive technology to challenge the umpire on an outside edge or LBW. On the latter form of dismissal, Dickie Bird was widely considered to favour batter over bowler. County bowler and former footballer, Jim Cumbes, complained to Dickie, after numerous unsuccessful appeals for leg before, that he’d never once given a decision in the bowler’s favour. The umpire relates the rest of the incident in his autobiography.

So I tried to explain to him where he was going wrong.

‘Jimmy, listen to me lad. They were all nip-backers, and tha’ can’t get lbs wi’ nip-backers. That’ should know that. Now, if yo’ were to hold one up, then you’ve got a chance.’

‘Huh,’ he muttered, nodding in the direction of the huge gasometer next to The Oval. ‘I reeckon if he was in front of that bloody gasomether you wouldn’t give him out, Dickie.’

‘Not if it were a nip-backer, Jimmy lad, not if it were a nip-backer,’ I agreed.

You can read many wonderful obituaries to Harold “Dickie” Bird, the beloved umpire and lifelong bachelor who died in his Yorkshire home at the age of 92. Vic Marks’ tribute in The Guardian to the funny, nervous and beloved official is one. Elizabeth Ammon has also written about the only umpire ever to take the players off the field because there was too much light in The Times. I was hoping Mike Atherton would break into print as his autobiography includes a number of amusing encounters involving Dickie. The umpire’s lifelong friend, Michael Parkinson, wrote warmly of his former Barnsley teammate in the foreword to Dickie Bird: My Autobiography

I think I love cricket, but not like Dickie Bird. I have never met anyone with such a passion for the game. I love the game warts and all, but Dickie doesn’t see the blemishes. I speak from experience having known the man for nearly fifty years.

And, having related many warm anecdotes, Parkinson concluded: