Vaughan will soon be back in Test action against Zimbabwe

In an exclusive interview with the BBC Sport website to mark his 70th birthday, Bird said: "To bat for your life, you'd got for Boycott.

"But technically, Vaughan is ranked the best player in the world and rightly so. He would hold his place in any Test side."

Feature: Dickie Bird Q&A

His endorsement comes only days after Yorkshire opener Vaughan was elevated to the number one position in the world Test batting rankings, the first England player to reach the number one spot since Graham Gooch a decade ago.

Vaughan was the leading scorer in Test cricket in 2002 with 1,281 runs and made three centuries during the winter Ashes tour to Australia. He is also a leading candidate to succeed Nasser Hussain as England's one-day captain.

Bird believes the future for England is bright with a number of young players beginning to make their mark on the international scene.

"I still think Marcus Trescothick's a fine player and I told the selectors to take this boy Jimmy Anderson to Australia in the Test squad.

Dickie finally hung up his white coat in 1998 Have Your Say: Send your birthday wished to Dickie

"With Anderson and Steve Harmison, and Simon Jones when he's fit, we've got a tremendous attack. They can all bowl at pace, and that's the key.

"I like the wicket-keepers Chris Read and James Foster - it's going to be difficult to pick between them, but Read's getting runs," said Bird.

He also tipped Warwickshire left-hander Jim Troughton as a good bet to make the Test side in the future, following a recent tour to Sri Lanka with the Academy side.

Bird is not in favour of the International Cricket Council's decision to appoint neutral umpires for all Tests, and believe there is too much international cricket.

"Every umpire is fair - there are no biased umpires. It's every English umpire's ambition to stand at Lord's, Indians look to umpire in Bombay and Calcutta and so on. Now they have no goal to reach.

"Test matches are special whether you're a player or an umpire, but now people stop me in the streets and say 'There's too many matches, Dickie. The interest's gone'."