Ashes to Ashes, cricket's oldest rivalry endures – The Express Tribune

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England bid to win back urn for first time since 2017/18
While ever more hostage to Twenty20's global carve-up, cricket will take a breath from next week to indulge its most time-honoured rivalry as Australia and England battle in the Ashes.
For more than 140 years the bilateral series has kept the heart of test cricket beating even if the five-day format appears on life support in certain nations.
Attention spans have shortened in the era of smartphones and social media, making long-form cricket with its lunch and tea-breaks seem something of an anachronism.
But generations of fans remain enthralled by the Ashes, a sprawling, five-test grudge match steeped in tradition, myth and cultural identity.
Huge crowds will pack out Perth Stadium when the series launches on November 21 and thousands of British fans will cross Australia's vast expanse through to the New Year to take in every game.
England great Ian Botham, whose Ashes feats are cricket legend, will be among them in his role as a broadcaster, one of many former 
players who grow misty eyed with nostalgia.
"Historically, everyone in the cricketing world watches the Ashes," Botham said near the 100,000-seat Melbourne Cricket Ground, venue of the fourth test.
"It's tradition, it's the competition. You know that it's all flat out.
"The Ashes is a very healthy place to be if you want to play cricket because you will fill houses."
Death of English cricket
Most sports boast a fierce rivalry or two, and some date back over 100 years.
But of contests between two nations, none match the Ashes' continuity and consistency.
Arguably, none can match its origin story, either, nor the mysterious appeal of the little terracotta trophy that remains cloistered at Lord's, the game's spiritual home in London, regardless of who wins the series.
The series' name has its origins in a mock obituary in a British newspaper that mourned the death of English cricket following a loss to a touring team from Australia in 1882.
"The body will be cremated and the ashes taken to Australia," it lamented.
England captain Ivo Bligh fulfilled a pledge to "recover those ashes" when he led the team to a 2-1 series win in the Australian colonies a few months later.
The terracotta urn's provenance has competing accounts, but most agree it was a jokey prize presented to Bligh by Australian society ladies following the series win.
Colonial upstarts
While the urn was offered light-heartedly, the Ashes have been contested furiously every two or so years, with Australia winning 34 series, England 32 and seven drawn.
The play is often fierce and riven with controversy, rooted in Victorian-era class wars waged between an imperialist power and its colonial upstarts.
The 19th century English cricketers with the means to take the long boat to the Australian colonies were invariably "gentlemen".
The hosts could be anything but.
Australians loved their cricket then as they do now, with gambling adding fuel to an aggressive, win-at-all-costs mindset forged in domestic clashes between rival colonies. 
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