The Ashes; love story to lifetime memory

by Rex Clementine  

There’s a buzz about the World Cup Qualifiers, yes, no doubt but the interest for The Ashes here in Colombo is quite big as well. The rivalry between Australia and England is legendary and has produced some of the best contests over the years. But how did we end up with this name – The Ashes. Here we explore.

The first Test match between England and Australia took place in 1877 at the MCG and after that five other series were played. In 1882, it all changed and the legend of The Ashes was born.

The previous summer, Australia had won in England for the first time and we all know about the mock obituary that appeared in a newspaper moaning about the demise of English cricket. But there was a punch line at the end of the obituary that said that ‘body will be cremated, and the ashes taken to Australia.’ That was the start of it all.

Monkey Hornby, the England captain had been replaced by Ivo Bligh. The new England captain ahead of the winter tour of Australia in 1882 had promised to regain the English ashes. The press asked his Aussie counterpart Billy Murdoch for a comment, and he said that he will defend the ashes.

Bligh’s England beat Australia 2-1 and the tourists were jubilant. That tour apart from the Tests also included several exhibition games. There was one such game at Rupertswood in Melbourne on the Christmas Eve. This was the estate owned by Sir William Clarke, who was the President of Melbourne Cricket Club at that time.

Lady Florence Morphy was present at this gathering. She had taken her perfume bottle, burnt the bails used for the game and put the ashes into it and had presented it to Bligh to mark the regaining of the ashes. This perfume bottle is the little urn that we see and popularly known as The Ashes.

Later that year, Bligh went onto marry Lady Morphy. The couple returned to England the following year and accompanying them was the urn or the perfume bottle with the ashes in it.

The urn was kept at Blight’s home in Kent and one of his last wishes was to present it to MCC after his death.

Lady Morphy did as her husband had requested and now the Ashes is at the MCC museum. The urn has become the symbol of The Ashes. There are replicas of the urn for sale at the MCC shop costing you 60 GBP (approximately Rs. 24,000)  The urn, obviously 140 years old, is fragile and has undergone meticulous repairs. It has over these 140 years only made three visits to Australia.

Australia are the holders of the The Ashes having won at home last year with a comprehensive 4-0 win. It was a defeat that saw several heads roll in England. Sri Lanka’s present coach Chris Silverwood too lost his job as the Head Coach of England.

Ben Stokes’ attacking style suggested prior to the start of the series that England could regain the Ashes. But they were over aggressive – like that declaration at Edgbaston on day one – and are playing catch up. Nathan Lyon’s calf injury has in all probability ruled him out of the series. That could be a massive loss for Australia. Is that the defining moment of this Ashes?