The History of Ashes Cricket Series

A brief account on the history of oldest cricketing rivalry

The Ashes is a test cricket series played between Australia and England just like any other two nations in the world but it is immensely popular, even more than the World Cup itself. With a global viewership of whopping 200 million, this bilateral tournament has gained popularity which is almost unmatchable for any other cricketing event. But have you ever wondered how it all began? Well, this blog brings you all the information you need to know about the most prestigious cricket trophy.

Let’s have a look!

How it all started?

The term ‘Ashes’ became popular after this incident - during the 1882 series, Australian team successfully won their first test on foreign soil by defeating England at the Oval. As a result, a local English daily newspaper published a satirical obituary for the English team stating that the national cricket team has passed away. The obituary also contained the traditional ceremonial note mentioning about the remains. Saddened by the news, the captain of the England team Ivo Bligh, promised to regain the lost pride and the ashes when he toured Australia. As promised, England not only won the test series in Australia next year by 2-1 but also gained the respect they had lost the previous year. While returning, a few female fans gifted the English captain an urn filled with the ashes of burned cricket stumps as a memento to commemorate their victory over Australians. Since then this test series became famous by the name Ashes.

List of all the series and results (1884-2015)

Ever since the inception, plenty of series took place. Here is the list of some memorable ones with results:

• 1882 - England emerged champions with the scoreline 2-1
• 1891-92 - Australia winning the Ashes for the first time
• 1893 - England regaining the urn by 1-0
• 1897 - Marks the beginning of Australian dominance, result 4-1
• 1928 - Don Bradman Arrives, England winning 4-1
• 1930 - Bradman scores astonishing 994 runs with an avg of 99.4 (a record till date). Australia winning 2-1
• 1938 - The Ashes series ends on a draw for the first time. 1-1
• 1972 - Series ends on a draw for the last time till date. Scoreline 2-2
• 1978 - The all time great Allan Border debuts for Australia but England thrashes Australia 5-1
• 1989 - Australian win 4-0 and their dominance begins again. They clinch the next 7 consecutive Ashes series.
• 2002-03 - Steve Waugh retires. Australia winning 4-1
• 2005 - England regains the urn after eighteen long years. Ashes 2005-06 becomes the most watched test series ever. Marks the beginning of a new era in the world cricket.
• 2006-7 - Australia regains the urn with a historical clean sweep. McGrath, Warne, Hayden and Katich retire.
• 2013-14 - Australia scripts another clean sweep, only second ever. Mitchell Johnson becomes first bowler to take 37 wickets in a single series.
• 2015 - England regains the urn by a thrilling win 3-2 at home.

The next series is slated to begin on November 23 2017.

Hope you enjoyed reading about the history of Ashes cricket.

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