As a member of the mighty West Indies cricket team of the 1980s and early 1990s, Jeffrey Dujon made three Test tours of England. His path crossed many times with legendary Umpire Harold “Dickie” Bird.

British media reports that the legendary English match official died on Monday at home in his beloved town of Yorkshire. He was 92.

Dujon’s first Test encounter with Bird came in the first match of the West Indies’ historic 1984 tour and series which the visitors won 5-0. That match took place at Edgbaston.

“Dickie was a character,” Dujon told the Jamaica Observer. “When things got a little boring, he would do something to draw attention to himself. He was a very good umpire who was not afraid to say he was wrong.

The wicketkeeper-batsman also played in Tests Bird officiated when he toured England in 1998 and 1991. He considers him and the equally affable David Shepherd his favourite English umpires.

Like Bird, Shepherd became an umpire after playing as a batsman in the English County Championship. He died in 2009.

It was Bird who gave Michael Holding the nickname, Whispering Death. He said the Jamaican was the only fast bowler whose steps he could not hear as he ran in to deliver.

Bird officiated in 66 Test matches and three World Cup finals. He stood in the 1983 final between the West Indies and India at Lord’s in which Dujon played, with the latter winning by 43 runs.

Dujon, who scored 3,322 runs in 81 Tests for the West Indies, believes Bird’s greatest asset as an umpire was finding middle ground.

“When you didn’t agree with a decision he made, you could say, ‘Dickie, I think you got that one wrong.’ And he would reply, ‘Why?’ But he was always approachable, and that’s one of the things I liked most about him,” said Dujon.