New Delhi: Cricket is probably the only game where one would hardly see players misbehaving with umpires even if they make wrong decisions. In fact it's quite common to see players and umpires joking in the field.
Cricket 'the Gentlemen's game' has given us some of the best umpires in the sport who have been highly respected. Though now days the Decision Review System (DRS) is in force to reduce the margin of errors but there was a time when no such system had existed and even than an umpire's decision was taken as full and final.
With the game's popularity going up and parks getting filled with noisy crowd, it has become much more difficult for Umpires to make a correct decision particularly if its an appeal for caught behind as the sound of a thin nick usually gets lost in noise.
Nevertheless India TV looks at some of the best umpires Cricket would always be proud of.
1) Dickie Bird: Harold Dennis Bird aka Dickie Bird is amongst the most reputed and famous umpires of the gentlemen's game. In his early days, Dikkie worked as a coalminer. Before stepping into the Cricket field, he followed his first love football but had to quit in between due to a knee injury.
He started playing county cricket for Yorkshire and coached for a period of time before taking-up the umpiring.
He stood in his first county game in 1970 and officiated at his first Test match played between England and New Zealand in Leeds.
Umpire Dickie Bird stood out there in the centre for three world cup finals-1975, 1979 and 1983.
Bird received the Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 2012 for his contributions to the game of cricket and charity.
Bird holds the record of officiating in most number of Test matches in a country (54 matches in England) .
2) David Shepherd: David Shephered was one of the world's best cricket umpires. He played county cricket for Gloucestershire for 14 years and later went on to become umpire and stay connected with the game.
David Shepherd stood in three consecutive World Cup, finals in 1996, 1999 and 2003. David was known for his cuteness and light heartedness on the field.
An interesting fact about David Shepherd was that he would jig or hop whenever when ever the scoreboard displayed same three digit numbers.
He officiated in 172 ODI's and 92 Test matches before he retired. He died of lung cancer on 27 October 2009 in Devon.
