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History of the Ashes
Every two years, England and Australia compete in one of the biggest sports rivalries for the right to claim an urn. In 1882, the English newspaper, The Sporting Times, wrote a satirical obituary after a match where Australia beat England on English soil for the first time. The obituary stated that English cricket had died and the body cremated and the ashes taken to Australia. In the next English tour in 1882-1883, the English media dubbed the tour as the quest to regain the Ashes.
To keep the satire going, a group of Melbourne women present the England captain Ivo Bligh with a small terracotta urn. The urn contents are thought to be the ashes of an item of cricket equipment, possibly a bail, ball or stump. However, over the years, the contents of the urn have been a thing of folklore. The original urn remains at the Marylebone Cricket Club Museum, with a Waterford Crystal representation being given to the winners of the Ashes Series.
Winning the bi-annual series is very prestigious. There have been a total of 64 ashes series to date with Australia winning 31 and England 28. Five series have been won. The Ashes series are now a played over five test matches.
The ashes series is not without controversy. One of the biggest cricket controversies to this day occurred during the 1932-33 English Tour of Australia. In the previous 1930 tour, Australian batsman, Don Bradman scored 974 runs with a batting average of 139.14. This record was outstanding and it still stands.
The English fast bowling duo of Harold Larwood and Bill Voce in order to try and neutralise Don Bradman’s excellent bowling decided to bowl on leg stump. They perfected the bowling technique in the English league and applied it to great effect in that tour. The tactic was named bodyline by the Australian media after one of their players had a skull fracture and another was struck just above the heart.
The series ended up being called the bodyline ashes and led to various cricket rule changes.
On the most part, the ashes though competitive are still considered a gentlemanly competition with the whole world watching the series. During a 16-year span when Australia completely dominated the series, it had lost some of its lustre but a resurgent English team in 1989 brought some life back to the series.
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