The Ashes

Tonight starts the Ashes.

I’ll let Wikipedia take it from here:

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 approximately biennially, alternately in England and Australia. The Ashes are "held" by the country which last won a series and to "regain" them the other country must win more Test matches in a series than the country that "holds" them. If a series is "drawn" then the country holding the Ashes retains them. The last Ashes series was played in England in 2005 when England regained The Ashes after a gap of 16 years by winning the series 2-1. The next Ashes series will be in Australia in 2006-07 and the next series in England will be in 2009.

The series is named after a satirical obituary published in The Sporting Times in 1882 following 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 not 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 of its age and fragility. Since the 1998-99 Ashes series, a Waterford crystal trophy has been presented to the winners.

The urn was presented to Captain Bligh! Incidentally, Fletcher Christian was the spinner bowler on that tour. Too funny. Well, sometimes you have to make your own funny.

Anyway, among a certain segment of the population here, the Ashes are Christmas, the World Cup and Bonfire Day all rolled into one. As indicated above, the Ashes is a “Test” series. Each team bats twice which takes five days. Eight hours of play over Five. Days. Moreover, the Ashes take place this year in Australia. Games conveniently start at 11:30 pm GMT and wrap up at 8:00 am GMT. I am a much bigger fan of the highlights which start at 7:00 p.m. GMT and condense five days into fifteen minutes.

I am trying to gain some sort of appreciation for cricket, but they don’t make it easy. Any sport which includes breaks for tea and lunch shouldn’t be trusted.