Portal:Australia/Featured article/Week 13, 2006

The Ashes is a biennial Test cricket series, played between England and Australia. It is international cricket's oldest and most celebrated rivalry, dating back to 1882. 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 of Australia. 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 not used as the trophy for the Ashes series, and whichever side "holds" the Ashes, the urn normally remains in the Marylebone Cricket Club Museum at Lord's. Since the 1998-99 Ashes series, a Waterford crystal representation of the Ashes urn has been presented to the winners of an Ashes series as the official trophy.