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| Glorious History of the Ashes Urn | | | (By Dr. Vikas Jamwal)
England pulled off a sensational victory over its arch rival Australia in the fifth and final Cricket test to regain the coveted Ashes urn after a four year gap. After losing Ashes series the Australian cricket team has been knocked off the number one slot in the ICC test ranking and is now placed behind India at fourth position. The Ashes is a fiercely contested competition, a test cricket played between England and Australia. After the concept of fast cricketing in the shape of ODI (One Day International) and T20, the Ashes still remains the most interesting test cricket competition played in the world. In cricket loving nations very few know about the past of this cricket series played by numerous legends both from Australia and England.
The series is named after a satirical obituary published in a British newspaper, The Sporting Times, in 1882 after a match at the Oval in which Australia beat England on an English ground 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 recover those Ashes, and this led to the start of first Ashes test series played in Australia. Australia won the first test by nine wickets, but in the next two England were victorious, at the end of the third test, England were generally considered to have “won back the Ashes” 2-1.
The first formative years of the Ashes saw England dominate the contest, particularly at home, and there was an extend period of English dominance. England lost only four tests in the 1880s out of 23 played, and they won all the seven series contested. Australia took its first series win since 1882 with a 2-1 victory in 1891-92. But England dominated, winning the next three series. In 1896 England under the captaincy of WG Grace won the series 2-1, and this marked the end of England’s longest period of Ashes dominance.
Australia resoundingly won the 1897-98 series by a 4-1 under the captaincy of Harry Trott. His successor Joe Darling won the next three series which saw the emergence of many outstanding Australian players. In 1903-04, England won against all odds and thus revived the Ashes legend and the series were customarily referred to as “The Ashes”. Five more series took place in between 1905-12 in favor of England by 3-2. After the World War I, Australia took firm control of both the Ashes and world cricket. Australia recorded thumping victories both in England and on home soil. They won the first eight matches in succession and England won only one test out of 15 from the end of the war until 1925. For the first time, England suffered a 5-0 whitewash in 1920-21 at the hands of Warwick Armstrong’s team. In a rain -hit series in 1926, England managed to eke out a victory with a win in the final test at the Oval, and in 1928-29, despite the debut of all time cricket legend Donald Bradman, England made a strong comeback by defending the Ashes with 4-1 comfortable win over Australia in Australia.
In 1930, Bradman fulfilled his promise and scored a remarkable 974 runs at an average of 140 runs per test, enable Australia to win a high scoring series. To counter Bradman and the best Australian batting line up, in 1932-33 England captain, Douglas Jardine adopted the famous fast leg theory known as “bodyline”. Although England won the Ashes 4-1, bodyline caused such a furor in Australia that diplomats intervene to prevent serious harm to the relation of two countries. However, many new guidelines set to prevent anyone to use the same tactics again. Later Jardine’s commented that, “I have not travelled 6’000 miles to make friends. I’m here to win the Ashes”. This famous episode of bodyline turned relation soured and the friendly test series transferred into a battleground of cricket supremacy. Bradman golden era started and Australia recovered Ashes in 1934 and held them until 1953. Under Bradman captaincy the Australian team has gone down in cricketing legend as The Invincibles. He, himself retired with an astonishing career average of 99.94, stills a record in world test cricket.
In 1954-55, Australian batsman failed to counter English pacers like Tyson and Brian Statham, lost series to England by 3-1. A see-sawing series in 1956 saw a record that will probably never be beaten off: Off– spinner Jim Laker’s monumental efforts at Old Trafford, when he bowled 68 of 191 over to take 19 out of 20 possible Australian wickets, and won the match single handedly. England dominance was not to last, Australia won 4-0 in 1958-59, further England failed to win any series during the 1960s, a period dominated by draws as teams found it more prudent to save face than risk losing. In 1970-71, Ray Illingworth led England to a 2-0 win in Australia; in 1972 series finished 2-2, with England under Illingworth retaining the Ashes.
In 1974-75, Australian pace bowlers Jeff Thomson and Dennis Lillee wreaked havoc and left England shell shocked with a 4-1. England then lost the 1975 series 0-1, but at least restored some pride under new captain Tony Grieg. The Ashes had long seen as a cricket world championship but the rise of the West Indies in late 1970s challenged the view. Another formation of WSC (World Series Cricket) by Kerry Packer contributed the decline of both the Australian and England teams. England made a hat trick from 1977-83 by retaining the Ashes. In 1981 series, in third famous test, chasing just 130, Australia were sensationally dismissed for 111, for Bob Willis taking 8/43, in second inning, was the first time since 1894-95 that a team following on had won a Test match. In 1982-83, under Greg Chappell Australia went 2-0 up and regain the Ashes. Despite suffering heavy defeats against West Indies, England continued to do well in Ashes, with David Gower’s 3-1 and Mike Gatting’s 2-1 won respectively for England. At that time, few would have predicted that England would have to wait until 2005 to win the Ashes again.
Australian reached a cricketing peak in the early 1990s and early 2000s, underlined its superiority with record breaking victories in all 8 series played in between 1989-2003, by convincing margins. Great Australian players included Allan Border, David Boon, Mark Taylor, Waugh brothers, McGrath, Gilchrist, Ponting, Hayden, Justin Langer, Brett Lee made almost impossible for England to regain the Ashes again. The most dominant Australian player was leg spinner Shane Warne, whose first delivery in Ashes cricket in 1993 became known as the ball of the century. Australia’s record between 1989 and 2005 had a significant impact on the statistics between the two sides. The 2005 series described as the most exciting in the history of the Ashes, fought very closely and the 2-1 series victory by England for the first time after 18 years has been compared with the great series of the distant past. Australia regained the Ashes in the 2006-07 series with a complete white wash of 5-0, the second time as Ashes series has been won by that margin.
In 2009, just concluded series England regained the Ashes, as Australia played without greats like McGrath, Warne and Langer, having been the back bone of the Australian team for almost a decade. With latest figures available so far, in all 305 tests Played till today, Australia won 122, England 97 and rest 86 were drawn. In a total of 65 series played both in Australia and England; Australia retained the Ashes for 31 times while England managed to retain for 29 times. Because of its rich distant past and nature of chanting rivalries, the urn of the Ashes still remains the biggest trophy in test cricket, doesn’t how small it’s in size.
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