The first Ashes Test is just around the corner and as much as the game has evolved and been tweaked over the years has it really changed that much?
Have times changed that much?
This writer recently came across a piece written by EV Lucas in Punch a month after the Armistice in 1919:
“Cricket is an intricate, vigilant and leisurely warfare, and the fact that every moment of it is equally fraught with possibilities and openings for glorious uncertainty makes it peculiarly the delight of intelligent observers, none of whom finds dullness in the spectacle of a batsman, no matter how stubborn, defending his wicket successfully against eleven opponents. Nor does it occur to them to ask him for gallery effects. First-class cricket calls for such very special gifts of temperament and skill that only the finest survive, and all their actions are worth study.”
Of course some may disagree with such sentiments and today their tastes are catered for with T20.
This contest between England and Australia has lasted 148 years, although the actual battle for the famous Ashes did not start until the ninth match between the two nations in 1882.
What is great about this sporting contest is that the name has remained. Which has not been the case with some of cricket’s traditional matches between international teams. For example the Wisden Trophy contested between England and the West Indies since 1963 was renamed in 2020, it was announced then that the trophy would be replaced by the Richards–Botham Trophy named after Sir Vivian Richards and Sir Ian Botham. (If You Know Your History and Heart of the Matter ).
What is incredible is that after 73 series it is still so even a contest with Australia having recorded 34 wins with England 32 and seven drawn series.
The Test match in Perth will be the 362nd – the 346th since the birth of The Ashes – between the two countries, and overall Australia has the ascendancy with 142 wins to England’s 110.
As has been the norm not just in recent times leading into the series ex players make bold statements about the outcome of the series, many of which will come back and haunt them. Although many are forgotten as quickly as yesterday’s news. The newspapers for over a century have been the source of stirring up much of the rivalry, and leading the general public who do not follow the game closely to believe how the series will unfold.
The newspaper in Perth however, now has to rely on front page headlines to get any traction, due to a fall in readership and the standard of its coverage. As has been the case in the past fortnight, much of which has in truth been embarrassing and truly cringeworthy.
Another thing we may think has changed is that there have always been and always will be those who have an opinion on the players and the state of play despite never having played at the same level. Today they can be found with ease on social media, but they have been around for the past hundred years.
Before mobile phones and the opportunity to write one’s views Australian cricket had “barrackers,” who were described in a letter to the Sydney Sun newspaper in 1933 as follows:
“They consist in large part of larrikins, habitual loafers and ‘deadbeats’ or ‘grass-eaters’ (as they are called in Australia) and irresponsible youths who will always follow the lead of rowdy seniors. They are the worst product of what has been called vicarious athleticism. They play no games themselves and therefore understand nothing of the techniques of the sports (except Racing) which they spend a large part of their lives watching.”
Are these not similar to many of the trolls on social media? So have things really changed that much?
Hopefully this will be a series to remember with all the attention on the cricket and who will win that famous little urn known as The Ashes.
Before signing off a simple request to all other sports, there is only one true Ashes series. History explains why this famous rivalry is so called.
On 31 August 1882 following England’s loss to Australia at the Oval in London in the magazine edited by Charles Alcock, “Cricket: A Weekly Record of The Game,” there appeared a mock obituary to English cricket.
Two days later on 2nd September 1882 the more celebrated mock obituary, written by Reginald Shirley Brooks, appeared in The Sporting Times. It read:
In Affectionate Remembrance
of
ENGLISH CRICKET,
which died at the Oval
on
29th August, 1882,
Deeply lamented by a large circle of sorrowing
friends and acquaintances.
R.I.P.
N.B.—The body will be cremated and the
ashes taken to Australia.
The Ashes are unique to cricket. They do not refer to every sporting contest between England and Australia. Maybe it is lazy marketing or lazy individuals within the media who insist on making every such contest a “battle for the Ashes.” They are not, and it is time that cricket reminded them of the fact.
