How did Ashes start ? The Ashes Genesis

THE ASHES - Genesis

              Ashes,the most prestigious test series played between England and Australia is back to entertain the cricket passionates this year in 2015.All the cricket fans round the world are excited to watch both the rival teams lock their horns on the field.This series has got fans not only from England and Australia but also from other nations as well.The Ashes series attracted everyone with some of its unlikely wins and some spectacular moments and celebrations as it meant pride of their country to the respective teams.Before talking about the teams,their strengths and weakness and analysing the game I want to ask you all,how many of us know the history of ashes ? How the name Ashes was coined? Well,some of you may be familiar with the Ashes and for those who are not,do not be alarmed.Instead,have a glimpse of the Ashes to unlock the history behind it and brace yourselves as the spectacular series of this year is gonna begin on 8th of this month.

HISTORY OF ASHES

         The dawn of Ashes dates back to 1882 when in a ongoing match between England and Australia,the victory for England was irrefutable and how the things seem to wrap up the winning chances for the Australians as they take the complete control from the England leaving them astonished.

       In the first innings of the match Australians managed to score a total of 63 runs after which A.N.Hornby successfully led England to a 38 run lead by putting a total of 101 on board.Now it was kangaroos time to challenge the British and they did it by splendid knock from Hugh Massie who scored 55 runs out of 60 deliveries and thereby playing an important role in Australia  scoring a total of 122 runs.At this point of match,England players seemed to be very confident as they are to score only 85 runs in the last innings  to shake their hands with victory.

    Kangaroos fought back very hard to win the match as the controversial runout of Australian batsman Sam Jones by English legend W.C.Grace in the previous innings determined them to fight for an unlikely victory on England.This unsporty act tested the patience and anger of the kangaroos when their bowling spearhead Spofforth encourged his boys before taking their field by saying to them “this thing can be done”.

SPOFFORTH-THE DEMON BOWLER

With this motivation,the Australian men challenged the English and they were like the soldiers fighting for their country.But all their efforts went in vain as the match reached to a point where English men needed just 34 runs with seven wickets remaining.When it was convinced that Australians will have to face a defeat though they gave their best to conquer the English in the game, there came the historical moment of the fall of Grace wicket which dramatically turned the tables upon the English men.Fall of this wicket boosted the kangaroos and once again uplifted their hope of winning.Now this inferno was carried through the game until the end of the match when the last batsman from England, Ted Peate came to crease with England having to score 10 runs to win.The English failed to put themselves back into the game as Ted Peate managed to score only two runs before he was sent back to pavilion by Harris Boyle.

    After this remarkable victory of Australia,the people of England were surprised and shocked to see their side being defeated in a match in which their win was secured for them at all points of the match.As usually,this gave the media a chance to make their way in criticing the English cricket.It was the british newspaper  “The Sporting times” which published a satirical obituary on English cricket after the unexpected and historical win of Australia at The Oval for the first time in England. The obituary states 

“English cricket had died, and the body will be cremated and the ASHES taken to Australia. “

    Soon before another  immediate test played against these both rival teams in 1882-83,the then English captain Ivo Bligh had taken a vow to regain those ashes and the media dubbed it as  The quest to regain those ASHES. After English conquering the Australians in the match and headed to victory, they were awarded THE URN,which was made out of terracotta and about 15 cm is reputed to contain a burnt cricket bail.However the urn was never given as trophy but it was a personal gift to Ivo Bligh who led his team regaining the lost reputation of England cricket and who brought the victory home as answer to satirical comments made by media.Now the replica of the urn is awarded to the winning side in every series.And from then Australia and England played test series against each other as a matter of pride for their respective countries and these matches are coined as THE ASHES.

THE URN

                                        
  As you can see on The Urn above you may notice that there are some lines written on The Urn. Those are:

   When Ivo goes back with the urn, the urn;
   Studds, Steel, Read and Tylecote return, return;
   The welkin will ring loud,
   The great crowd will feel proud,
   Seeing Barlow and Bates with the urn, the urn;
   And the rest coming home with the urn.

   And this unlocks the complete history of the prestigious Ashes series and folks get ready to share and enjoy their pride in victory.

Following is the glimpse of the victories in the Ashes :-

	PLAYED	WON BY ENGLAND	WON BY AUSTRALIA	DRAWN
ALL TESTS	320	103	128	89
PLAYED IN ENGLAND	158	47	46	65
PLAYED IN AUSTRALIA	162	56	82	24
ALL SERIES	68	31	32	5

So now let us analyse the stats,know the facts and enjoy the on field acts.Let us wish both the teams all the very best for their upcoming Ashes series and I wish the spectators have a great time watching the show.