Ashes Just For Cricket

Ever noticed how sports other than Cricket are trying to reap rewards from Australia and England’s long history of Cricket rivalry. With any contest involving Australia and England, if it is not coming from the organising parties, then it is usually from the media or just keen punters in the outer. They call their contest "The Ashes", just because Australia and England are playing, and they think that refers to their sport. I don't think the Rugby League did it in their most recent contest but I know they have in the past.

The ashes are very historical and relate to a specific event in Cricket’s history. Here is the story in brief:

"In affectionate remembrance of English cricket which died at The Oval, 29th August, 1882. Deeply lamented by a large circle of sorrowing friends and acquaintances, RIP. NB The body will be cremated and the Ashes taken to Australia."

Australia’s first victory on English soil over the full strength of England, on August 29, 1882, inspired a young London journalist, Reginald Shirley Brooks, to write this mock “obituary’’. It appeared in the Sporting Times.

Before England’s defeat at The Oval, by seven runs, arrangements had already been made for the Hon. Ivo Bligh, afterwards Lord Darnley, to lead a team to Australia. Three weeks later they set out, now with the popular objective of recovering the Ashes. In the event, Australia won the first Test by nine wickets, but with England winning the next two it became generally accepted that they brought back the Ashes.

It was long believed that the real Ashes – a small urn thought to contain the ashes of a bail used in the third match – were presented to Bligh by a group of Melbourne women. In 1998, Lord Darnley’s 82-year-old daughter-in-law said they were the remains of her mother-in-law’s veil, not a bail. Other evidence suggests a ball. The certain origin of the Ashes, therefore, is the subject of some dispute.

After Lord Darnley’s death in 1927, the urn was given to MCC by Lord Darnley’s Australian born widow, Florence. It can be seen in the cricket museum at Lord’s, together with a red and gold velvet bag, made specially for it, and the scorecard of the 1882 match.

So I think other sports should be a bit more creative and leave Cricket’s rivalry to Cricket. Let’s face it, an Ashes contest in a sport other than cricket just doesn’t feel right anyway.