test cricket, who's ashes are they?

Answer 1

The series is named after a satirical obituary published in The Sporting Times in 1882 after the match at The Oval, in which Australia beat England in England for the first time. The obituary stated that English cricket had died, and the body will be cremated and the ashes taken to Australia. The English media dubbed the next English tour, to Australia (1882-83) as the quest to regain The Ashes.

A small terracotta urn was presented to the England captain Ivo Bligh by a group of Melbourne women at some point during the 1882-83 tour. The contents of the urn are reputed to be the ashes of an item of cricket equipment, possibly a bail, ball or stump. The urn is now used as a trophy for the Ashes series, and whichever side holds the Ashes, the urn normally remains in the MCC Museum at Lord's because it was bequeathed to the MCC by Ivo Bligh upon his death. Since the 1998-99 Ashes series, a Waterford crystal trophy has been presented to the winners.

Answer 2

The series is named after a satirical obituary published in The Sporting Times in 1882 after the match at The Oval, in which Australia beat England in England for the first time. The obituary stated that English cricket had died, and the body will be cremated and the ashes taken to Australia. The English media dubbed the next English tour, to Australia (1882-83) as the quest to regain The Ashes.

A small terracotta urn was presented to the England captain Ivo Bligh by a group of Melbourne women at some point during the 1882-83 tour. The contents of the urn are reputed to be the ashes of an item of cricket equipment, possibly a bail, ball or stump. The urn is now used as a trophy for the Ashes series, and whichever side holds the Ashes, the urn normally remains in the MCC Museum at Lord's because it was bequeathed to the MCC by Ivo Bligh upon his death.[1] Since the 1998-99 Ashes series, a Waterford crystal trophy has been presented to the winners.

Answer 3

It's the ashes from the burning of the bailes which were use at the first match between Australia and England when Australia won. They were said to be the ashes of English cricket. Up to that point, it was a game played mainly in England and "exported to the colonies". The cricket authorities in England never thought the colonials would ever be in a position to beat England and agreed to the test series format for that reason.

Answer 4

No-one is certain what is in the urn, but scientific tests have stated that it is probably the ashes of a set of bails, not stumps or a ball.

They do NOT date from the first ever Test between England and Australia in 1877, but only their NINTH Test match, played in 1882, which was the first time Australia won against England.

Answer 5

They are the ashes of the bails used in the first England v Australia Test Match

Answer 6

There have been lot of speculation regarding the contents of Ashes Urn. Earlier it was reported that the Urn contains the remains of a stump, bail or the outer casing of a ball.

However, during the tour of Australia in 2006, the MCC Official accompanying the Urn said that the urn contains the ashes of a cricket bail.

Answer 7

When England lost to Australia disastrously in the last century (nearly as bad as we are losing now) at the end of the series the bails were burnt and kept in a small urn, known as the ashes of English cricket....and the original urn is kept at Lords Cricket Ground . They now belong to Australia.

Answer 8

The Ashes is a Test cricket series, played between England and Australia - it is international cricket's oldest and most celebrated rivalry dating back to 1882. It is currently played nominally biennially, alternately in England and Australia. However since cricket is a summer game, the venues being in opposite hemispheres means the break between series is alternately 18 months and 30 months. If a series is drawn then the country holding the Ashes retains them.

The series is named after a satirical obituary published in The Sporting Times in 1882 after the match at The Oval, in which Australia beat England in England for the first time. The obituary stated that English cricket had died, and the body will be cremated and the ashes taken to Australia. The English media dubbed the next English tour, to Australia (1882-83) as the quest to regain The Ashes.

A small terracotta urn was presented to the England captain Ivo Bligh by a group of Melbourne women at some point during the 1882-83 tour. The contents of the urn are reputed to be the ashes of an item of cricket equipment, possibly a bail, ball or stump. The urn is now used as a trophy for the Ashes series, and whichever side holds the Ashes, the urn normally remains in the MCC Museum at Lord's because it was bequeathed to the MCC by Ivo Bligh upon his death.[1] Since the 1998-99 Ashes series, a Waterford crystal trophy has been presented to the winners.

On the 1882 tour, the Australians played only one Test, at The Oval in London. It was a low-scoring game on a difficult pitch. Australia made only 63 runs in their first innings, and England, led by A N Hornby, took a 38-run lead with a total of 101. In the second innings, Australia made 122, leaving England to score only 85 runs to win. Australian bowler Fred Spofforth refused to give in, declaring, "This thing can be done." He devastated the English batting, taking the final four wickets while conceding only two runs, to leave England a mere seven runs short of victory in one of the closest and most nail-biting finishes in cricket history.

When England's last batsman went in, the team needed only 10 runs to win, but the final batsman Ted Peate scored only 2 before being bowled by Boyle. The astonished crowd fell silent, not believing that England could possibly have lost by 7 runs. When what had happened had sunk in, the crowd cheered the Australians.

When Peate returned to the Pavilion he was reprimanded by W G Grace for not allowing his partner at the wicket Charles Studd to get the runs. Despite Studd being one of the best batsman in England, Peate replied, "I had no confidence in Mr Studd, sir, so thought I had better do my best."

In the 31st August edition of a magazine called "Cricket: A Weekly Record of The Game" there appeared a now obscure mock obituary to "English Supremacy in the Cricket Field which expired on the 29th day of August at the Oval". Two days later, September 2, 1882 a second mock obituary, written by Reginald Brooks, appeared in The Sporting Times. This notice read as follows:

"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 English media fastened on to this notice and dubbed the English tour to Australia of 1882-83 as the quest to regain The Ashes of English Cricket. The three match series resulted in a 2-1 win to England, notwithstanding a fourth match, won by an Australian XI whose status remains a matter of dispute.

The term "The Ashes" then largely disappears from public use for the next twenty years; certainly, there is no suggestion that this was the accepted name for the series, at least in England. The term seemingly became popular in Australia before it did in England, George Giffen in his memoirs (With Bat and Ball, 1899) using the term as if it was well known.[3] Then following the successful English tour of 1903-04 the English captain, Pelham Warner published a book called "How We Recovered The Ashes". Even though the legend is not referred to in the text, the title was enough to revive public interest in the legend. The first mention of "The Ashes" in the Wisden Cricketers' Almanack occurs in 1905 and the first Wisden account of the legend was included in the 1922 edition.

Answer 9

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Answer 10

They are the ashes of the bailes from the stumps of the first ever test match between England and Australia.

Apparently, the wife of the Captain burnt them becuse she was sick of he husband being so obsessed!