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Harold ‘Dickie’ Bird, umpiring great, dies aged 92

Published

3 months ago

2025/09/23

Priyan

Harold 'Dickie' Bird, pictured at Headingley in May 2015 (Cricinfo)

Harold Dickie Bird, one of the most beloved umpires in cricket’s history, has died at the age of 92.

Bird, who officiated in 66 Tests and 69 ODIs, including three World Cup finals, was synonymous with his home county Yorkshire, for who he began his career as a top-order batter in 1956, and later went on to serve as Yorkshire president in 2014.

He averaged 20.71 in 93 first-class matches, making two centuries including a best of 181 not out against Glamorgan in 1959. But when, after moving to Leicestershire in 1960, his career was cut short by injury four years later, his switch to umpiring would set him on the path to becoming a household name.

Bird’s idiosyncrasies would become part of his appeal, including his famously anxious attitude to timekeeping. Having made his umpiring debut in May 1970, he travelled to London for his second match – Surrey versus Yorkshire at The Oval – arrived at 6am for an 11am start, and was caught by a policeman attempting to scale the wall of the still-locked ground.

As an umpire, he was famously reluctant to raise his finger for lbw appeals – several of his decisions would have been quickly over-turned in the age of DRS. In mitigation, he was at least consistent in offering the benefit of the doubt to batters … with one possible exception. On the morning of his final Test, England versus India at Lord’s, he arrived in the middle with tears in his eyes after a guard of honour from the players. And duly gave Mike Atherton out lbw in the first over of the match.

Other memorable moments included his decision, during the West Indies Test at Old Trafford in 1995, to call a halt to play for an excess of sunlight, which had been reflecting off a greenhouse behind the bowler’s arm. In that same fixture, as related by Atherton in his autobiography, Bird dropped the pocket-ful of marbles that he used to count the deliveries in an over.

“Play was halted momentarily while Dickie scrambled around on his hands and knees looking for his counters,” Atherton wrote. “‘I’ve lost me marbles! I’ve lost me marbles! He cried. Most of us thought he had lost his marbles a long time ago.”

He was frequently the victim of practical jokes – particularly at the hands of Ian Botham and Allan Lamb. On one occasion, Lamb arrived at the middle with his 1980s brick-style mobile phone still in his pocket. Bird duly stashed it in his coat, whereupon Botham rang the device from the dressing-room, telling a startled Bird to pass on a message for his team-mate to get a move on.

Bird himself had believed his likeliest route to sporting success was football, although as he related in his autobiography, a cartilage operation on his knee at the age of 15 put paid to that ambition. Instead, he became a fixture in Barnsley’s 1st XI cricket team, where his team-mates included Michael Parkinson – who would later become a world-renowned chat-show host – and later, Geoffrey Boycott.

In 2009, Bird was honoured with a bronze statue on Barnsley’s Church Lane, set in his familiar umpiring pose with one finger raised. The council was soon obliged to place it on a higher plinth than had been intended, due to the public’s temptation to hang objects on said finger.

He was appointed an MBE in 1986 and an OBE in 2012 in recognition of his outstanding contribution to cricket, having stood in his last first-class match in 1998, Yorkshire versus Warwickshire at Headingley.

(Cricinfo)

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Trump hopes to reach phase two of Gaza ceasefire ‘very quickly’

Published

2 hours ago

2025/12/30

Priyan

Donald Trump said he hoped to reach phase two of the Gaza peace plan “very quickly”, as he warned Hamas would have “hell to pay” if it did not disarm quickly.

The US president, whose 20-point peace plan requires the militant group to disarm, made the comments as he met Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Florida for talks on Monday.

During a press conference with Netanyahu after their meeting, Trump said Israel had “lived up to the plan 100%”, despite continuing attacks by its military in Gaza.

The US president also said his country could support another major strike on Iran were it to resume rebuilding its ballistic missile or nuclear weapons programmes.

Asked how quickly Hamas and Israel should move to phase two of the peace plan, Trump said: “As quickly as we can. But there has to be disarmament.”

Speaking about Hamas, he said: “If they don’t disarm as, as they agreed to do, they agreed to it, and then there will be hell to pay for them.

“They have to disarm in a fairly short period of time”.

Trump also said reconstruction in Gaza could “begin pretty soon”.

The Gaza peace plan came into effect in October. Under the second phase, a technocratic government would be established in the devastated territory, Hamas would disarm and Israeli troops would withdraw. The reconstruction of Gaza would then begin.

But critics have suggested Netanyahu could seek to delay the process of the plan and instead push for Hamas to disarm before Israeli troops withdraw.

The Israeli prime minister has been accused of not wanting to engage seriously with the issue of a political future for Palestinians.

Hamas officials have said a full disarmament should take place alongside progress towards an independent Palestinian state.

Asked if he was concerned Israel was not moving quickly enough to phase two of the plan, Trump said it had “lived up to the plan”.

“I’m not concerned about anything that Israel’s doing, I’m concerned about what other people are doing or maybe aren’t doing,” he added.

[BBC]

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Bangladesh’s first female prime minister Khaleda Zia dies aged 80

Published

3 hours ago

2025/12/30

Priyan

An earlier picture of Khaleda Zia from 2016 [BBC]

Bangladesh’s first female prime minister Khaleda Zia has died at the age of 80 after suffering from a prolonged illness.

“Our favourite leader is no longer with us. She left us at 6am this morning,” Zia’s Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) announced on Facebook.

Physicians had said on Monday night that Zia’s condition was “extremely critical”. She was put on life support, but it was not possible to provide multiple treatments at the same time given her age and overall poor health, they said.

Zia became Bangladesh’s first female head of government in 1991 after leading the BNP to victory in the country’s first democratic election in 20 years.

Zia returned to the post of prime minister in 2001, stepping down in October 2006 ahead of a general election.

Her political career had been marred by corruption allegations and a long-standing political rivalry with Awami League leader Sheikh Hasina, who was ousted from premiership last year.

Zia, who was the wife of Bangladesh’s late president Ziaur Rahman, was jailed for five years in 2018 for corruption.

[BBC]

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Ukraine denies drone attack on Putin’s residence

Published

3 hours ago

2025/12/30

Priyan

President Volodymyr Zelensky has denied allegations by Russia that Ukraine launched a drone attack on one of President Vladimir Putin’s residences, and accused Moscow of trying to derail peace talks.

Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov claimed Kyiv had launched an attack overnight using 91 long-range unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) on Putin’s state residence in Russia’s northwestern Novgorod region.

Russia said it would now review its position in peace negotiations. It is not yet clear where Putin was at the time of the alleged attack.

Zelensky dismissed the claim as “typical Russian lies”, intended to give the Kremlin an excuse to continue attacks on Ukraine.

He said that Russia had previously targeted government buildings in Kyiv.

Zelensky added on X: “It is critical that the world doesn’t stay silent now. We cannot allow Russia to undermine the work on achieving a lasting peace.”

In a statement shared on Telegram on Monday, Lavrov said all of the 91 drones he claimed were launched at Putin’s residence were intercepted and destroyed by Russian air defence systems.

He added that there were no reports of casualties or damage as a result of the attack.

“Given the final degeneration of the criminal Kyiv regime, which has switched to a policy of state terrorism, Russia’s negotiating position will be revised,” he said.

But he added that Russia did not intend to exit the negotiating process with the US, Russian news agency Tass reported.

The claim by Moscow comes after talks between the US and Ukraine in Florida on Sunday, where Presidents Trump and Zelensky discussed a revised peace plan to end the war.

Following the meeting, Zelensky told Fox News on Monday that there was a “possibility to finish this war” in 2026.

But he said Ukraine could not win the war without US support.

“My feelings of President Trump’s sanctions and economical steps, shows that he’s ready for very strong steps,” Zelensky said. “In this situation, the United States can move the situation to peace quicker.”

The Ukrainian president told Fox News there was no indication that Putin wanted peace and that he did not trust Putin.

“I don’t trust Putin and he doesn’t want success for Ukraine,” Zelensky added.

Zelensky said the US had offered Ukraine security guarantees for 15 years, and Trump said an agreement on this point was “close to 95%” done.

Ukraine’s leader described territorial issues and the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant as the last unresolved matters, and there was little sign of progress on the future of Ukraine’s contested Donbas region – which Russia wants to seize in full.

Moscow currently controls about 75% of the Donetsk region, and some 99% of the neighbouring Luhansk. The two regions are known collectively as Donbas.

Russia has previously rejected key parts of the plan under discussion.

Map showing which areas of Ukraine are under Russian military control or limited Russian control

The White House said on Monday that President Trump had “concluded a positive call” with Putin, following the US-Ukraine talks.

Yuri Ushakov, a Kremlin foreign policy aide, told reporters on Monday that during the call, Putin had pointed out the alleged attack on his residence happened “almost straight after what the US had considered to be a successful round of talks”.

Ushakov said: “The US president was shocked by this information, he was angry and said he couldn’t believe such mad actions. It was stated that this will no doubt affect the US approach to working with Zelensky”.

During a later press conference, Trump initially appeared to say he did not know about the alleged incident, but later told reporters that he was told about it by Putin and was “very angry” about it.

Asked if the US had seen any evidence supporting Russia’s claim, he responded: “Well we’ll find out. You’re saying maybe the attack didn’t take place – that’s possible too, I guess. But President Putin told me this morning it did”.

[BBC]