Aaron Christopher Bird is an Australian
cricket
Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...
er who played
first-class cricket
First-class cricket, along with List A cricket and Twenty20 cricket, is one of the highest-standard forms of cricket. A first-class match is one of three or more days' scheduled duration between two sides of eleven players each and is officiall ...
for the
New South Wales Blues. He is a right-handed batsman and a right-arm fast bowler.
Bird arrived from Taree, NSW as a 16-year-old to play
Sydney Grade Cricket
NSW Premier Cricket (formerly known as Sydney Grade Cricket) is a cricket competition played in Sydney, Australia. The competition began in 1893 when a number of clubs that had been playing for many years on an ad hoc basis voted to create a forma ...
with
North Sydney Cricket Club
UTS North Sydney Cricket Club, formerly known as North Sydney District Cricket Club, is a cricket club based in North Sydney, Australia. The Bears, as they are known, were founded in 1858 playing against Callen Park and other cricket clubs arou ...
, eventually going on to play First Grade as an 18-year-old. In this time with North Sydney, Bird hit the headlines when he hit former Test batsman
Michael Slater
Michael Jonathon Slater (born 21 February 1970) is an Australian former professional cricketer and former television presenter. He played in 74 Test matches and 42 One Day Internationals for the Australia national cricket team.
Early life
S ...
injuring the former test star in the process. Bird now plays his cricket with
Bankstown Cricket Club, former home of the Waugh brothers.
Bird caused controversy after appearing in a
Twenty20
Twenty20 (T20) is a shortened game format of cricket. At the professional level, it was introduced by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) in 2003 for the inter-county competition. In a Twenty20 game, the two teams have a single innin ...
match, in which players wore nicknames on their shirts, with the moniker 'Flu' – a reference to
bird flu
"Bird Flu" is an urumee melam-dance song by recording artist M.I.A. on her second studio album '' Kala'' (2007). It was released as a digital download in 2006 through XL Recordings under exclusive license to Interscope Records in the US. Cr ...
. He was ordered not to wear the name again, as might upset the sponsors of the tournament,
KFC
KFC (Kentucky Fried Chicken) is an American fast food restaurant chain headquartered in Louisville, Kentucky, that specializes in fried chicken. It is the world's second-largest restaurant chain (as measured by sales) after McDonald's, with 2 ...
.
In December 2006 Bird was reported for a
suspect bowling action but was later cleared by
Cricket Australia
Cricket Australia (CA), formerly known as the Australian Cricket Board (ACB), is the governing body for professional and amateur cricket in Australia. It was originally formed in 1905 as the 'Australian Board of Control for International Crick ...
. In January 2009, his bowling action was again reported. After undergoing analysis at the
Australian Institute of Sport
The Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) is a high performance sports training institution in Australia. The Institute's headquarters were opened in 1981 and are situated in the northern suburb of Bruce, Canberra. The AIS is a division of the ...
biomechanics laboratory in Canberra it was found that for some deliveries his elbow extension exceeded the 15-degree limit, he was subsequently banned by
Cricket Australia
Cricket Australia (CA), formerly known as the Australian Cricket Board (ACB), is the governing body for professional and amateur cricket in Australia. It was originally formed in 1905 as the 'Australian Board of Control for International Crick ...
. After being mentioned by the umpires in a Blues' Twenty20 match in January 2010, Bird ended his first-class career in April 2010; he would continue to play grade cricket for Canterbury-Bankstown.
See also
*
List of New South Wales representative cricketers
This is a list of male cricketers who have played for New South Wales in first-class, List A and Twenty20 cricket. It is complete to the end of the 2017–18 season. The list refers to the sides named as "New South Wales" and does not include pl ...
References
External links
*
1983 births
Australian cricketers
Cricketers from New South Wales
Living people
New South Wales cricketers
People from Taree
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