Is it a bird? No, it’s Dickie Bird

Itrsquos the final moment of the final dayand timersquos finger raisedand therersquos a tear in the eyecos past the floodlights flying hightherersquos a lone bird soaring In the Barnsley skyIan McMillan Yorkshire poetMay you rest in peace Dickie saab From the various battles you officiated over 22 yards to your home and garden in Yorkshire you were the finest umpire everIt fascinated me when you chose your best all time Test eleven Sunny Immy Sobers Warnie Sir Viv Lance Gibbs Lillee Greg Chappell mdash obviously there was an uproar No Sachin no Lara no Pontinghellip no BradmanWatching most of these men up close and personal must have been special for you to pick an eleven of the finest And Irsquom thinking in the years when you went out to ldquoumpirerdquo there was a relative simplicity to the game no DRS and third umpires and reviews and replays When you gave a batsman out that was it he was out no one questioned it and he just walked Irsquom thinking that yoursquod have been appalled to have a third person take a final decision for youItrsquos funny mdash you were most famous for diffusing tense situations with selfdeprecating humour and jestSo I have a question mdash with all the sledging and nonshaking of hands thatrsquos going on between us and the Pakistanis do you feel it was in the spirit of the gameOnce two teams have agreed to play would you have insisted that they conduct themselves amicably or would you have had something to say Last Tuesdays the match was a gun battle shrouded in a game The umpires watched benignly as players let go of their cricket gear for imaginary guns skilled players became soldiers how would you have handled itMore importantly we meet the Pakistanis tonight in the final of the Asia Cuphellip itrsquos gotten from bad to worse In the first encounter hands werenrsquot shaken In the second ldquoplanes fell out of the skyrdquo it was nasty stuffWhat would you have done and what would you do tonight if you were one of the two umpires Irsquom guessing yoursquod gather all 22 players on the 22 yards and have a wee chat ldquoHow do lads Howrsquos the scene tonightrdquo yoursquod have joked about wanting good clean competitive cricket nothing more mdash in your endearing Yorkshire accentBack in the day you looked over some really colourful characters Sunny and Imran were both in your greatest Test eleven Gavaskar one of your top openers and Imran your skipper Our relations as two cricket nations was tense but somehow politics stayed out of the equation mdash Imran even convinced Sunny to delay his retirementOne could argue that everything has become more complex complicated and umpires head out to the middle armed to the teeth and yet the modern on field umpire has the safety net of an air conditioned third opinion with the aid of technology tracking systems the stress on his correctincorrect decision making much lessYou Harold Dennis Bird just had your two eyes an instinct and feel for the game balancing the rule book vs the conditions An understanding of human beings the geniality of a gentleman but coupled with a solid firmness Six hours a day of complete focus picking out noballs hearing nicks to the keeper allowing no nonsense between players getting those LBW decisions correct in a nano second massive repercussions between an appeal and your finger going up and you controlled some of the most volatile folks in the game Ambrose Warne Lillee nudges onto the pads when LBW decisions were demanded and the sheer knowledge of the game you had no second chancesThere were no instant replays Just you having to take an instant decision ldquoYou always knew you were out when the great Dickie Bird raised his fingerrdquo said Brian LaraRest well dear Dickie the giant cricket stadium in the heavens awaits youRahul daCunha is an adman theatre directorplaywright filmmaker and traveller Reach him at rahuldacunhamiddaycom