Ashes History Lesson

The Ashes what is known as the greatest rivalry in cricket and a series that always provides us with moments to marvel at and pieces of history being created in each series without fail.  Who can forget the magical delivery by Shane Warne 20 years ago? The magical 158 by Kevin Pietersen during the 5^th test in the sensational 2005 series? Or what about the 1981 series known just as Botham’s Ashes.  2013 is going to be a spellbinding spectacle of cricket trust me on that but before we look forward to this summer let’s look back at the history of The Ashes.

Picture taken from wikimedia.org

Where did it all begin well back in the days of the huge British empire England went around all the colonial countries introducing to them the great game of cricket and in the process destroying many of the new nations at the countries game. England played Australia on many occasions over here in green and wonderful Blighty defeating the old enemy on ever single occasion this was until a test match way back in 1882 when finally after numerous attempts Australia won a test match for the first time in history on English soil at the Oval, London. This lead to national outcry in the press and the following image a satirical obituary shown below was printed in the Sporting Times.

In Affectionate Remembrance
OF ENGLISH CRICKET,
WHICH DIED AT THE OVAL
ON 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 series when an England team travelled down under to face the Aussies was then dubbed by the English press as a quest to regain The Ashes and ever since then The Ashes have been competed for between these two arch rivals.

wikimedia.org

During the tour of 1882-83 the England captain at that time Ivo Bligh was presented with the famous little urn that is the symbol of The Ashes around the world. Bligh was presented this from a group of Melbourne women and the little terracotta urn is meant to contain the ashes of a cricket ball and bails. The urn is not the official trophy of any Ashes series but around the cricketing world this is the symbol that both teams do battle for, the original urn can be seen in the Lords museum where it never leaves. 

I have spoken all about this Ashes series but for you strange non cricketing lot an Ashes series is undoubtedly simple. An Ashes series is a 5 match test series competed normally biennial  except in 2013 due to fixture congestion. One thing for you guys to watch out for in all Ashes series you watch is that even though a series may end a tie the trophy is not shared in a drawn series the current holders of the Ashes will retain the series.

The Ashes
Australia Wins	31
England Wins	14
Drawn Series	2
Number of Series	66

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Top image taken from BBC News