While I have nothing against Giles Clarke - and indeed he achieved a lot for Somerset as county chairman - it is the OBE for Harold 'Dickie' Bird that will resonate most amongst the world's cricketing community. Despite the shift towards a more egalitarian process, the British honours system remains mired in the ancient class structure. Clarke went to Rugby School and Oxford University, brokered some big TV deals and gets a CBE. Bird went to Raley School, Barnsley and served cricket loyally for 40 years yet gets only an 'O'. Where's the justice?!
From my early days of following cricket, Dickie Bird was a permanent fixture in his umpire's apparel. His specs came later but his distinctive white cap and rather dishevelled appearance were as much part of the sport as stumps, red ball and, in the 1970s, extravagantly-sideburned fast bowlers! When floppy hats began to replace traditional caps, and bowlers would hand him both headgear and sweaters, poor Dickie would stand at the bowler's end resembling some crazy clothes horse, but nothing would distract him from the job at hand, making decisions based on the laws of cricket, implacably objective and fair whoever was playing.
After a moderate playing career as batsman for both his native Yorkshire and Leicestershire, he first officiated in 1970 aged 37, standing at his first Test just three years later, at Headingley. England thrashed New Zealand, helped by a century from his one-time school teammate, Geoff Boycott. Before the days of neutral umpiring and the ICC Panel, Bird was one of the most respected umpires amongst the world's top cricketers across the world, from Botham to Lillee to Sobers. An intense royalist, receiving the MBE 25 years ago and meeting the Queen (he did so regularly) meant an enormous amount to him. For an umpire he was unusually emotional, whether grouchily bemoaning the under-pitch plumbing for wrecking a day's play to wiping away tears when given a standing ovation on his last Test appearance at Lord's in 1996.
He loved cricket and the affection was mutual. We all love our umpires to be fair but a little human, too. In football, referees have been ordered to be automatons, avoiding eye contact with players. Professionalism in cricket has begun to go the same way but it still pleases me to see umpires interacting with the players. I remember being at Lord's when England were playing Sri Lanka. During an injury-related break, Dickie picked up a discarded bat and produced light-hearted roars from the crowd by practising a few strokes!
Like Boycott and another friend Michael Parkinson, Dickie Bird remains a 'professional Yorkshireman'. True to his roots yet often annoyingly big-headed (with friends like Prime Ministers, Stephen King and billionaire John Paul Getty, he couldn't be totally humble!), Bird can apparently still be seen and heard in his favourite Barnsley haunts. However, he is also a true cricketing institution not just in Yorkshire, nor England even, but across the world. I'm amazed it's more than 15 years since his last Test (England drew with India - Dravid 95) so his elevation to OBE, at the age of 78, seems grossly overdue. It is the very least he deserves and hopefully it won't be long before the Queen commands him to arise, Sir Dickie!
