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ENG vs AUS: After the completion of the second World Test championship, the cricket community now moves to the greatest rivalry in cricket – The Ashes. Two cricket giants and world beaters England and Australia will be up against each other in a five-match Test series that will get underway on June 16 at Edgbaston, Birmingham. The tiny but one of the most celebrated trophies will test the temperament, skill, and determination of some of the best players in the world for one and a half months.
Why is the name Ashes? Know the love story behind it!
The first ever Test matches played are regarded when England toured Australia in 1877. England and Australia used to play Test matches but they were not termed as Ashes. The name took its origin when Australia toured England in 1882 for a one-off Test. That year the Australian team defeated England at The Oval in a thrilling low-scoring affair. This was England’s first defeat on home soil.
After the loss, an English weekly – The Sporting Times posted a mock obituary stating that the English cricket has died and it added, “The body will be cremated and the ashes taken to Australia.” The name caught attention people’s attention and began to be used by the English media when they toured Australia next.
Notably, there is a love story addition in the continuation of the story too. After the loss at home, the then-English captain Hon Ivo Bligh took his team to Australia in 1882 and vowed to bring the Ashes back. Meanwhile, the then-Australian skipper WL Murdoch vowed to defend it. The tour was dubbed by the English media as the quest to bring the Ashes back.
England and Australia played three Test matches in that 1882 series and England won the first two of them. The English team also played a few social matches and after one such match, it is learned that English captain Bligh was gifted a perfume-looking urn by his future wife Florence Morphy. He took the urn home and it was kept on the mantelpiece at Bligh’s home in Kent until 1927, when Bligh died. After his death, Florence bequeathed that urn to MCC.
The urn is kept in the MCC Museum at Lord’s and a replica was awarded to the winners of the Test series. But in the 1990s, the teams desired to compete for the actual trophy and MCC commissioned an urn-shaped Waterford Crystal trophy. The original urn remains to be at the museum in Lord’s.
Over the years, the two teams have played in 72 Ashes series, out of which Australia have won 34 and England have been victorious on 32 occasions. There have also been 6 draws.
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