Ashes, The, is the name given to the trophy awarded to the winner of a series of Test cricket matches that take place over several days between England and Australia. Test matches are competitions that began in 1877 and are considered part of the highest level of international cricket. The rivalry between England and Australia is the oldest in Test cricket.
In the August 1882 Test match, Australia beat England by seven runs at the Oval cricket ground in London. After that defeat, an English newspaper, the Sporting Times, printed a mock (imitation) obituary notice, written by the English journalist Reginald Shirley Brooks: “In affectionate remembrance of English Cricket, which died at the Oval, 29th August 1882. Deeply lamented by a large circle of sorrowing friends and acquaintances. R.I.P. N.B. The body will be cremated, and the ashes taken to Australia.”
The following winter, the English cricketer Ivo Bligh, who later became Lord Darnley, toured Australia as captain of the English team. He promised to try to bring back the “ashes” of English cricket. England won two of the matches the team played, winning the series. Some Australian women in Melbourne burned one of the bails used in the third game and put the ashes in a small pottery urn, which they presented to the English captain. Lord Darnley brought the ashes back to England and kept them.
After Darnley died in 1927, the urn, according to the terms of his will, went to the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC), the chief administrative body for cricket in England. The urn is now displayed in the MCC Museum behind the pavilion at Lord’s Cricket Ground in London. The Ashes remain there, regardless of which country currently holds the title. Beginning in the early 2000’s, a trophy made of Waterford crystal in the form of a large-scale replica of the pottery urn has been awarded to the winning team of each series.
