Aaron Christopher Bird (born 28 September 1983) is an Australian former

cricket Cricket is a Bat-and-ball games, bat-and-ball game played between two Sports team, teams of eleven players on a cricket field, field, at the centre of which is a cricket pitch, pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two Bail (cr ...

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 of three or more days scheduled duration between two sides of eleven players each and is officially adju ...

for

New South Wales New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a States and territories of Australia, state on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of :Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria (state), Victoria to the south, and South ...

. He played as 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 and still commonly known as Sydney Grade Cricket is a cricket competition played in Sydney, Australia, and is highest level club cricket competition in the state of New South Wales The competition began in 1893 when ...

with North Sydney Cricket Club, 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 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 (abbreviated T20) is a shortened format of cricket. At the professional level, it was introduced by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) in 2003 for the county cricket, inter-county competition. In a Twenty20 game, the two t ...

match, in which players wore nicknames on their shirts, with the moniker 'Flu' – a reference to bird flu. He was ordered not to wear the name again, as it might anger the sponsors of the tournament,

KFC KFC Corporation, doing business as KFC (an abbreviation of Kentucky Fried Chicken), is an American fast food restaurant chain specializing in fried chicken and chicken sandwiches. Headquartered in Louisville, Kentucky, it is the world's se ...

. In December 2006 Bird was reported for a suspect bowling action but was later cleared by

Cricket Australia Cricket Australia (CA) 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 Cricket'. It is incorporated as an Australian Public Company ...

. 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

. 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.

References

External links

* 1983 births Australian cricketers Cricketers from New South Wales Living people New South Wales cricketers Sportspeople from Taree 21st-century Australian sportsmen {{Australia-cricket-bio-1980s-stub