The birth of 'ASHES'

One of the most popular cricket series ASHES between the arch-rivals Australia and England has an interesting history behind its origin. The term 'Ashes' was first used in 1882 after England lost to Australia for the first time on home soil (The Oval) on 29th August 1882.

The defeat upsets a young London journalist, Reginald Shirley Brooks of the Sporting Times who published a mock obituary in rememberance of English cricket on the very next day. The obituary carried was as follows:

"The body will be cremated and the ashes taken to Australia". It was a big insult of English cricket and the then English Captain Hon Ivo Bligh [later Lord Darnley], vow to return with "the ashes"; in the next tour of Australia. His Australian counterpart, WL Murdoch, similarly vowed to defend them.

Few weeks later, England won the the next series by 2-1 and brought back the Ashes. In adition to 3 Test matches, England team played few social matches and It was after one such match, at the Rupertswood Estate outside Melbourne on Christmas Eve 1882, that Bligh was given the small terracotta urn as a symbol of the ashes that he had travelled to Australia to regain.