What are the 'ashes' and why are they called the ashes?

Answer 1

The Ashes is the name given to the top-level cricket competition between England and Australia.

In 1882, after Australia defeated England on English soil for the first time, The Sporting Times ran the following obituary for English cricket:

In Affectionate RemembranceofENGLISH CRICKET,which died at the Ovalon29th AUGUST 1882,Deeply lamented by a large circle of sorrowingfriends and acquaintancesR.I.P.N.B.-The body will be cremated and theashes taken to Australia.

Later that year, when the English cricketers set out for Australia, captain Ivo Bligh promised to "recover those ashes", and repeated the promise several times during the tour. When England won that series 2-1, some Melbourne women presented him with a small urn containing the ashes of a bail; when he died his widow gave the urn to the MCC, and it is now in the museum at Lord's. However after this tour the whole thing was considered over and forgotten.

Twenty years later, in 1903, English captain Pelham Warner once again led a tour to Australia, with the stated aim of "recovering the ashes", and after returning from a victorious series he wrote a book How We Recovered The Ashes, and that is how the term entered public discourse. The first reference to the Ashes in Wisden is from 1905.

Since then, whenever England and Australia play a series of test matches, they are said to be playing for the Ashes.