Umpiring legend Harold 'Dickie' Bird is someone who believes respect cannot be bought, but earned. While some of the cricketing world's greatest stars like Sachin Tendulkar and Brian Lara surely have his respect, gaining entry into his all-time greatest Test XI is a tougher feat than they would have imagined.

Picking the side for a British daily ahead of his 80th birthday on Friday, Bird suggested he has no issues leaving out Aussie legend Donald Bradman too. Curiously, the top-10 run makers in Tests don't figure in Bird's line-up.

His team is captained by Pakistani pacer Imran Khan, whose knowledge of the game "was outstanding". Sunil Gavaskar is the only Indian in the XI as he "was one of the two best opening bats I saw".

The list has South African batting great Barry Richards and his countryman Graeme Pollock, three Australians in Greg Chappell, Shane Warne and Dennis Lillee, as many West Indians in Garfield Sobers, Viv Richards and Lance Gibbs and a lone Englishman - wicketkeeper Alan Knott.

Apparently, Bird gave Barry and Pollock the benefit of the doubt, stating that both careers were cruelly curtailed by the apartheid. Having said that, Barry's stint with Hampshire in county cricket would have given Bird enough reason to pick him for his playing XI.


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