Harold Dennis “Dickie” Bird, retired international cricket umpire, while talking in an interview with BBC Yorkshire on his 90th birthday on April 19, gave a special message to the viewers.
The former English umpire said, “I’d like to thank everyone who’s sent me cards, I’ve had cards from all over the world. I just wanted to say, I’d like people, elderly people if they could just try and do a few exercises.
Just do, as long as they move their arms, just do a few exercises. Try and run on the spot, I know it’s not easy. If they could, a lot of the elderly people, if they could do this because it occupies the brain,” he said.
Bird umpired in 66 Tests over 23 years of his career. His first Test came at his home ground, Headingley, in 1973 and his last of all at his equally beloved Lord’s, when England played India in 1996.
He also added, “Well, the next aim is 95 and then if I get to 95, it’s the big one, the century. So, I’ll be trying, I’ll be keeping my exercises up for as long as I can.”
He started by laughing and saying, “I can’t say I feel like when I was 21. But, I feel pretty good. They say I don’t look 90”.
The reporter replies, “It’s true, You don’t look 90.”
Bird speaks and shared his daily routine with the interviewer, “Well, that’s a marvellous compliment. I run, I go out down to the local football ground here in a local part and I lap around the ground. I do general exercises and I feel that that’s done me good.”
During his long umpiring career, he became a much-loved figure among players and the viewing public, not just due to his excellence as an umpire but also his many eccentricities.
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