Indian cricketers are gentlemen: Bird

NEW DELHI, January 11: Indian cricketers can take pride for carrying the tradition of maintaining the spirit of the game with legendary umpire Dickie Bird saying he has always found them "gentleman" and all past Indian players have been a credit to the game.
"I have always found Indian team going back to Gavaskar, Chandrasekhar, Prasanna, Wadekar, when I umpired them, as gentleman and I mean in all sense of the term.They all have been credit to the profession and credit to the game of cricket," Bird said to a private newschannel.
Bird said the Australian players of his era also played the game with spirit.
"..players like Lillie, Johnson, Marsh, Chappell brothers, in that Australian team and they played hard but always played with the laws and the spirit of the game. And if I thought things are getting out of control, I used to have quite word with both captains," said the English umpire.
Bird said the incidents which marred the Sydney Test could have been avoided by the timely intervention of the two umpires.
"The two umpires would realise when they look back on it that they should have got the two captains together. In a proper manner, in a nice way probably cracked a joke with the two captains and a smile and laughter, that's what I used to do," said Bird, a veteran of 66 Tests.
"Its very sad when I saw what was going on in this Test match in Sydney. It is sad for the game but I do hope we can rise from this. Cricket has got to be the winner"
"Lets play the game in a proper manner within the law and spirit of the game."
"With all the technologies available they can go to the third umpire and I think now the third umpire is more important. The umpires with whom I have been brought up is finished because now the electronic age has taken over and I think It is a sad day for cricket."
On Steve Bucknor, Bird said "I did advise him and I did had a long chat with him a while ago and said look, if I can give you any advice is to retire while you get a lot of respect," he said.
Asked whether umpires should be judged on the basis of their performance, Bird said it was certainly a practise during his days.
"In my days, they were (judged). Even if you make odd mistake, I have seen English umpires who made odd mistakes being removed from the Test match panel. Well, that does not seem to happen today. They get long contracts as umpires.