President Dickie Bird: Yorkshire CCC honour is ‘pinnacle of my life’

Bird called the appointment “the pinnacle of my life”.

He will succeed another Yorkshire cricket icon, former Yorkshire and England batsman Geoffrey Boycott, whose two-year term expires next month.

Bird, 80, will be officially appointed at the club’s annual general meeting at the end of the month.

He will serve for one year and said it would “make my term of office” if Yorkshire could win the County Championship next summer.

An emotional Bird told the Yorkshire Post: “This is not just the pinnacle of my career – it’s the pinnacle of my life.

“When I walked through the gates at Headingley as a 16-year-old kid for my first practice, I never dreamt for one moment that I would become president of the greatest county cricket club in the world.

“To be honest, I feel numb and I haven’t slept since the club rang to tell me the wonderful news.

“I’ve had a lump in my throat ever since because there is no greater honour than to be Yorkshire president.

“My dear father and mother, if they’d still been alive, they would have been so proud of this, and it makes me emotional to think what it would have meant to them too.

“I’ve been so lucky, coming from a humble background in Barnsley, that I really do have to pinch myself sometimes.”

Bird played just a handful of first-class games for the club but is still considered one of its heroes, with the famous Dickie Bird clock high above the West Stand.