Competitions

The Ashes

Citation Formats

General Reference

Sport and Games Atlas. "The Ashes." Accessed August 30, 2026. https://sport.interactiveatlas.org/competitions/the-ashes.

APA Style

Sport and Games Atlas. (n.d.). The Ashes. Retrieved August 30, 2026, from https://sport.interactiveatlas.org/competitions/the-ashes

BibTeX

@misc{sportandgamesatlas-the-ashes,
  author = {Sport and Games Atlas},
  title = {The Ashes},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://sport.interactiveatlas.org/competitions/the-ashes},
  note = {Accessed August 30, 2026}
}

The Ashes is a Test cricket series contested only between England and Australia, ordinarily five matches, alternating between the two countries roughly every two years; the side holding the urn keeps it if a series is drawn. The name and the whole tradition began as a joke: after Australia beat England on English soil for the first time, at The Oval in 1882, the London newspaper The Sporting Times printed a mock obituary for English cricket stating that the body would be cremated and the ashes taken to Australia. When England's captain Ivo Bligh led a side to Australia that winter promising to recover those ashes, and won two of the three matches played, a group of Melbourne women presented him with a small terracotta urn, believed to contain the ashes of a burnt cricket bail, which gave the series its enduring physical symbol and its name.

Facts

Founding Year

1882 1

Founding Date

1882-09-02 1

Date marks publication of the Sporting Times mock obituary that gave the rivalry its name; the first Test series played under the Ashes name began later that year during the 1882-83 tour of Australia.

Frequency

Roughly every two years, alternating between England and Australia 1

Host History

Alternates between England and Australia; ordinarily five Test matches per series; the trophy urn, presented to England captain Ivo Bligh during the 1882-83 tour, is a symbolic prize too fragile to be handed over in play, and replica trophies are presented to the actual series winner. 1

Cross-Tradition Connections