Cricket: Bird wants end to bouncer rule

DICKIE BIRD, the highly respected umpire, thinks the law restricting use of the bouncer is 'farcical' and that it should be left to umpires to deal with intimidatory bowling.

Bird, who is in New Zealand where he is umpiring the Test series against Pakistan, believes that the experimental rule, now in its third and final year, restricting a bowler to one bouncer per batsman per over is a poor one.

'I think it's a farcical law,' said Bird, who has stood in a record 58 Tests, four World Cups and is now one of the first officials to be used in the International Cricket Council neutral umpire scheme. 'I think you will find it will go in the next 12 months. If, in the opinion of the umpire, it is intimidatory bowling, he's got to stop it. I prefer the old law as it was.'