The Ashes
The Ashes is a Test cricket series played biennially between England and Australia. The term originated in a satirical obituary published in a British newspaper, The Sporting Times, immediately after Australia's 1882 victory at The Oval, its first Test win on English soil. The obituary stated that English cricket had died, and that "the body will be cremated and the ashes taken to Australia". The mythical ashes immediately became associated with the 1882–83 series played in Australia, before which the English captain the Hon. Ivo Bligh had vowed to "regain those ashes". The English media therefore dubbed the tour the Quest to regain the Ashes.
After England won two of the three Tests on the tour, a small urn was presented to Bligh at Melbourne. The contents of the urn are reputed to be the ashes of a wooden cricket bail. It is not clear whether that "tiny silver urn" is the same as the small terracotta urn given to Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) by Bligh's widow after his death in 1927.
The Ashes urn has never been the official trophy of the series, having been a personal gift to Bligh, but replicas of the urn have often been held aloft by the winning team as a symbol of their victory. Since the 1998–99 Ashes series, the Ashes Trophy, a Waterford Crystal trophy modelled on the Ashes urn, has been presented to the winners of the series. Irrespective of which side holds the trophy, the original urn remains in the MCC Museum at Lord's. It has been taken to Australia three times to be put on touring display, as part of the Australian Bicentenary celebrations in 1988, to accompany the Ashes series in 2006–07 and as part of an exhibition held at the State Library of Victoria in 2019.
Ashes series usually comprise five Tests, hosted in turn by England and Australia approximately every two years. The Ashes are regarded as being held by the team that most recently won the series. If the series is drawn, the team that currently holds the Ashes "retains" the trophy.
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