What Are the Ashes?

The Ashes is a Test cricket series contested between England and Australia — one of the oldest international sporting rivalries in the world. Played alternately in England and Australia every two years, the series consists of five Test matches, and the winning team holds the Ashes urn until the next edition. More than any trophy, it represents pride, history, and an intensely competitive spirit between two nations that helped shape modern cricket.

How It All Started: 1882

The Ashes was born from a single extraordinary defeat. In August 1882, Australia beat England at The Oval in London — the first time an Australian team had beaten England on English soil. The defeat stunned the English public, and the satirical sporting newspaper The Sporting Times published a mock obituary that read:

"In Affectionate Remembrance of ENGLISH CRICKET, which died at The Oval on 29th AUGUST, 1882... The body will be cremated and the Ashes taken to Australia."

The phrase caught fire. When England's touring party departed for Australia that winter, a group of Melbourne women presented England captain Ivo Bligh with a small terracotta urn containing the ashes of a burnt cricket bail (some accounts say a cricket ball) as a symbolic gesture. That tiny urn — just 10.5 cm tall — became the iconic trophy at the heart of the rivalry.

The Urn and the Trophy

The original Ashes urn is now kept permanently at the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) Museum at Lord's Cricket Ground in London. Neither team actually takes it home after winning — instead, both teams compete for a Waterford Crystal replica trophy introduced in 1998. The urn remains at Lord's regardless of who wins, making it perhaps the most unusual trophy arrangement in all of sport.

Legendary Ashes Moments

More than 140 years of Ashes cricket has produced some of sport's most remarkable moments:

  • Don Bradman's 1930 series: The greatest batsman of all time averaged 98.66 in the series, scoring 974 runs — a record that still stands.
  • Bodyline, 1932–33: England's controversial tactic of bowling short-pitched deliveries at the body of Australian batsmen caused a diplomatic crisis and led to changes in the Laws of Cricket.
  • Ian Botham's Ashes, 1981: England were 1–0 down and seemingly headed for defeat at Headingley. Botham's 149* and Bob Willis's 8/43 produced one of the greatest comebacks in Test history.
  • The 2005 Ashes: Widely regarded as the greatest series in cricket history, England ended 18 years of Ashes drought with a 2–1 victory in a series that gripped the entire nation.
  • Steve Smith's dominance, 2019: Returning from a ball-tampering suspension, Smith averaged 110.57 in the series — a performance that defied belief and secured the Ashes for Australia.

The Format Today

The modern Ashes consists of five Test matches played over approximately six weeks. Points are not accumulated over time — the series standing is simply win/loss/draw per match. The team that wins three or more matches wins the series. If the series ends 2–2, the current holders retain the urn.

Why the Ashes Still Matters

In an era of franchise T20 leagues and year-round international cricket, the Ashes retains a unique standing. It matters because:

  • It carries more than a century of history and shared narrative.
  • The five-Test format tests players across multiple surfaces, conditions, and mental states in a way no other series quite matches.
  • The rivalry is genuine — Australia and England have genuinely disliked losing to each other for generations.
  • It still fills Test grounds to capacity in both countries, proving that long-form cricket has an audience when the context is compelling enough.

Whether you're a lifelong cricket fan or just discovering the game, following an Ashes series is one of the best ways to understand what makes cricket uniquely captivating among the world's sports.