Life is a Game…

With Cricket’s oldest tournament Ashes series about to begin in a week, let’s have a glance at the glorious history behind it. It was 1883 and England had lost to Australia at their home. An Australian newspaper notoriously claimed that the English Cricket is dead and that its body would be cremated in England and the ‘ashes’ would be taken to Australia.

The stung English side started a mission to regain the trophy and thus the 1882-83 became the first Ashes test series. After winning, England were handed a small urn with the ashes of a bail (now found in the museum at the Lord’s). A replica is given to the winning captain of each series. England drew the first blood as they won 11 out of the first 12 series. But Australia has made it up with a 34-5-28 head to head record. The ‘Bodyline’ series and the ‘Invincibles’ are the two most important series in the history of Ashes.

In the 1932-33 series, Australia was formidable with Sir Don Bradman in an imperious form. The English were worried about this and they bowled with an intention to hurt the Aussies by bowling into their body. This is infamously called “The Bodyline” series. In the 1948 series, Don Bradman led Australia went through their entire tour undefeated (31 matches) and this team is called the Invincibles.

No wonder, both the teams take a great pride in winning the Ashes and even place it a notch higher than the World Cup.