Overview
- Yorkshire County Cricket Club said he died peacefully at home in Barnsley, South Yorkshire, at age 92.
- Sachin Tendulkar wrote that Bird "made the game richer" and praised his fairness, grace and humour in a message on X.
- Between 1973 and 1996 he stood in 66 Test matches, 69 ODIs and seven women’s ODIs, becoming one of the game’s most recognised officials.
- Before umpiring he played 93 first-class matches for Yorkshire and Leicestershire, scoring 3,314 runs with two centuries.
- He was known for quirky diligence and a human touch—arriving hours early, reversing a caught-behind to recall Chris Cowdrey, even giving Sunil Gavaskar a mid-Test haircut—and later voiced skepticism about DRS-era technology.