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Why Dickie Bird is officially now larger than life - VIDEO
FEW people are considered worthy enough to be immortalised with a statue. Dickie Bird is one of them. WATCH VIDEO.
It's even more extraordinary when somebody gets a statue in their own lifetime.
But then there's nothing ordinary about Dickie Bird - the world's most famous ever cricket umpire.
WATCH VIDEO: Click the green play button to watch our video of the event plus interviews with Dickie Bird and sculptor Graham Ibbeson.
IPHONE VIDEO: iPhone users, with a wifi connection, can watch the video via You Tube by clicking here.
In a fitting tribute the great man himself was invited to unveil his own slightly larger than life bronze statue near his birthplace in Barnsley.
And it wouldn't have been the same if Dickie hadn't shed a tear as he did the honours. He did, of course.
Complete with trade-mark white cap, umpire's coat, and cricket jumper tied around his middle, the statue points his famed finger of fate - the one that has given out some of the world's greatest batsmen.
Dickie, aged 76, was given the Freedom of the Borough in 2000 and says he will never ever leave his beloved hometown.
Now he never will - his statue, in his most famous "that's out" pose, standing for all time as gatekeeper to greet the many thousands who will pass by everyday next to one of the busiest roads leading into the town centre.
Barnsley sculptor Graham Ibbeson, who has produced statues of Eric Morecambe, Fred Truman, Stan Laurel and Les Dawson, created the one of Dickie to stand on cobble stones off Church Lane, near the rear of St Mary's Garden, where the cricket legend lived as a child.
There is even talk of siting miniature replicas in Australia and India - where the former cricket Test umpire, whose book My Autobiography sold more than a million copies, is as revered as he is in the UK.
But the 50,000 original is now likely to become a top tourist magnet in its own right, attracting interest from visiting cricket fans from all over the world. Dickie, who started his cricket career at Barnsley alongside pals Geoff Boycott and Michael Parkinson, played first class cricket for Yorkshire in the 1950s and 1960s. He then umpired for 28 years, from 1970 to 1998, notching up 66 Test matches and 69 One Day Internationals, including three World Cup finals.
Since retiring he has launched his Dickie Bird Foundation, which has raised thousands of pounds to help disadvantaged under 18s achieve their potential in sport.
As he unveiled the statue, getting his first look at the finished work of art, he said: "It's a tremendous honour. I'm lost for words in terms of what this means to me. Graham Ibbeson has got everything just right - it's how I want people to remember me, with a smile on my face.
"I felt humbled that people wanted to do this and that they have raised the money to pay for it.
"I talk about Barnsley wherever I go and I tell people it's the best place in the world. So to be honoured in my hometown means more to me than anything else."
Graham said: "I'm proud of the finished statue - it's the best portrait I've ever done. That's probably because I know him so well and he spent a lot of time with me at my studio. He's the first living subject I've done as a statue."
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Latest sport But I tried to capture him in his forties as people remember him best.”
Former teacher Mel Dyke, who led the Dickie Bird statue project, added: “Schools and colleges were involved from the outset and work on the developing sculpture was carried out to raise awareness of the importance of both the arts and sport in education and life generally.”
n Visit thestar.co.uk/video for video of the statue unveiling and an interview with Dickie Bird.
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