The Ashes

The Ashes is one of the most fiercely contested sports events in the world. The intensity often spills off the field of play, and even caused an international diplomatic incident during the notorious “bodyline” series of 1933. So, why all this passion?

The answer lies in Ashes history, starting with the 1882 England – Australia test match at the Oval. After leaving England only 85 to win, the Australian bowlers were so infuriated by alleged English gamesmanship that they produced an inspired performance that won the match by 8 runs.

This silenced the Oval crowd but enraged the English press, who tore into their team’s perceived lack of backbone. Soon afterwards, a mock obituary appeared in the Sporting Times:

In Affectionate Remembrance of ENGLISH CRICKET, which died at the Oval
on
29th AUGUST, 1882, deeply lamented by a large circle of sorrowing friends and acquaintances.
----
R.I.P.
----
N.B.—The body will be cremated and the ashes taken to Australia.

This caused a further problem, as the said ashes were only a journalistic idea and not a physical trophy. Nevertheless, their legend gathered force as England vowed to regain them on their next tour. The Australian media gleefully hyped up this contest, but although England won the series the Ashes still only existed in spirit.

So, now the series had a trophy, but there was another problem. Because of the urn’s fragility, the MCC would not let it be removed from the museum at Lords – much to the further frustration of the Australians. Instead, a crystal replica was commissioned, but neither team have ever seen this as an acceptable substitute for the real thing.

Nevertheless, the regular Ashes test series continued. But, England – Australian relations took a serious turn for the worse in 1933, and the passions generated at the time still live on today. The man responsible was Douglas Jardine, the English captain, who commented “I’ve not travelled 6,000 miles to make friends. I'm here to win the Ashes"!

Jardine’s attitude was delivered by his tactics. He instructed his fast bowlers to target the bodies of the Australian batsmen, and in particular the brilliant Donald Bradman. This was done using leg theory - short pitched, round the wicket bowling, with a ring of close leg side fielders. The fielders were in place to take catches fended off by batsmen who were more concerned about self preservation than scoring runs.

The resulting injuries caused fury in the Australian press, and led to a diplomatic incident between the two governments. Despite all this, Australia still went on to win the series, and bodyline was subsequently banned. But, Australian hostility to Jardine’s attitude still lives on today.

The professionalism of the current Australian cricket set up was catalysed by embarrassing Ashes defeats to England, including the loss of the Ashes in 1981 to an England team inspired by Ian Botham and Bob Willis, and a further loss in 1987 to Mike Gatting's team. This humiliation was simply unacceptable to the Australian team, their Board, and the Australian media.

The tearful resignation of Kim Hughes as Australian captain was followed immediately by the complete restructuring of their coaching system, team and ethos by Allan Border, their captain in the early 1990s.

Inspired by Border, the Australian teams now showed a new ruthless professionalism that dominated the cricket world. This included the Ashes, with the notable exceptions of the 2005 and 2009 losses to exceptional England teams.

So, when Andrew Strauss and Ricky Ponting take the field on 25 November 2010 to start the long awaited 2010 Ashes series, they will be only too aware that the spirits of 1882, 1933, 1981, 2005 and 2009 will be close behind.

The latest teams are more closely matched, but losing the Ashes will be just as unacceptable to both sides as it was to their forbears.

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