The Ashes is one of cricket's most celebrated and fiercest rivalries

This time round, the famous Test series between Australia and England, known as the Ashes, will be played in Australia. Last year, English players won the Urn after a lapse of 16 years. It is one of cricket’s fiercest and most celebrated rivalries and the oldest in international cricket, dating back to 1882.

The series is named after a satirical obituary published in the Sporting Times in 1882 following the match at the Oval, in which Australia beat England for the first time. The obituary stated that English cricket had died, and the body would be cremated and the ashes would be sent to Australia. The English media dubbed the next English tour of 1883 to Australia as the “Quest to Regain the Ashes” and since then, the Ashes has become an annual conquest between the oldest rivals in cricketing history.

To date, a total of 62 Ashes series have been played with Australia winning 30, England winning 27, the remaining five series were drawn; with Australia retaining the Ashes four times and England retaining it once. The Ashes series have generally been played over five Test matches, although there have been four-match series (1938 and 1975) and six-match series (1970-71, 1974-75, 1978-79, 1981, 1985, 1989, 1993 and 1997). In all, 293 matches have been played, with Australia winning 115 times, England 92 times, and 86 draws. The Australians have made 264 centuries in Ashes Tests, 23 batsmen scoring over 200, while Englishmen have scored 212 centuries, of which 10 players scored over 200. On 41 occasions, individual Australians have taken 10 wickets in a match while the Englishmen have performed that feat 38 times.

England was the better team of the early 1980s, although the competition was close. Australia won the 1982-83 series, but England then took two victories in 1985 and 1986-87. After those wins, however, a period of extended Australian dominance began, and England did not win the Ashes series until 2005. Australia won the 1989 series 4-0, and an England side weakened by Test bans following the Mike Gatting tour to South Africa lost 3-0 in 1990-91. The Australians underlined their superiority in the contest by winning the 1993, 1994-95, 1997, 1998-99 and 2001 series, all by convincing margins.

Australia’s record since 1989 has impacted upon the overall statistics between the two sides. Before the 1989 series began, Australia had won 36.9 per cent of all Tests played against England. Prior to the 2005 series, Australia had won 40.8 per cent of all Tests, England 31 per cent with 28.1 per cent drawn. In the period between 1989 and the 2005 series, the two sides had played 43 times; Australia winning 28 times, England seven times, with eight draws. Moreover, only a single England victory had come in a match in which the Ashes were still at stake, namely the first Test of the 1997 series. All others were consolation victories when the Ashes had been secured by Australia.

Australia’s first tour of England after World War II, in 1948, was led by the 39-year-old Don Bradman in his last appearance representing Australia. His team has gone down in cricketing legend as ‘the invincibles’, as they played 36 matches including five Tests, and remained unbeaten on the tour. They won 27 matches, drawing only nine, including the 4-0 Ashes series victory. This series is also known for one of the most emotional moments in cricket history. It was the fifth Test of the 1948 Ashes being played at the Oval and Bradman’s last. Needing only four runs to maintain a career batting average of 100, he got out on a duck on the second ball he faced by Eric Hollies. With only four runs short, Don Bradman retired with a career average of 99.94, unbeaten to date.

Australia gradually weakened after 1948, allowing an England come back in the early 1950s when they won three successive Ashes series, from 1953 to 1956 to become arguably the best test side in the world at that time. A fluctuating series in 1956 also saw a record that will probably never be beaten; England bowler Jim Laker’s monumental effort at Old Trafford when he bowled 191 overs for 68 runs and took 19 out of 20 possible Australian wickets. Never has the phrase “he won the match single-handedly” been more appropriately used. England’s dominance was not to last for long. Australia made a 4-0 whitewash when they next toured in 1958-59, having found a good bowler of their own in Richie Benaud who took 31 wickets in the five Test series. England failed to win any series during the 1960s, a period dominated by draws as teams found it more sensible to save their dignity with a draw than the humility of losing.

In the first series of the 1970s, England managed a 2-0 victory, much thanks to the efforts of Geoffrey Boycott who scored five fifties and two centuries in the series, but in the mid-1970s, Australia regained dominance with fast bowler Dennis Lillee taking English wickets time after time. Nonetheless, both teams had their victories, England enjoying an emphatic 5-1 win in 1978-79 while Australia took non-Ashes series 3-0 win a year later. Most would say that the two sides were evenly matched, but no one knew just how evenly they would be matched in the next one.

In the 1981 Ashes series, Australia took a 1-0 lead in the first two Tests. Australia looked certain to make it 2-0 in the third Test at Headingley when they forced England to follow-on 227 runs behind. England, reduced to 135 for seven wickets, produced a second innings of 356, Ian Botham scoring an unbeaten 149, and adding 221 for the last three wickets in partnerships with Graham Dilley, Chris Old and their fast bowler Bob Willis. Chasing 130, the Australians were dismissed for 111, with a devastating spell of eight for 43 by Bob Willis, giving England a miraculous victory by 18 runs.

The fourth Test of the 1981 Ashes at Edgbaston was a similarly inspired comeback victory for England. Ian Botham this time starred with the ball, taking five for 11, including a spell of five wickets for a single run in Australia’s second innings of 121 to give England victory by 29 runs. England also went on to win the fifth Test, where Botham scored a century at Old Trafford to retain the Ashes. The sixth Test at the Oval was drawn. Famously, an English bookmaker offered odds of 500 to one for an English victory, and Australian players Dennis Lillee and Rod Marsh laid a small bet. This came back to haunt them as Lillee and Marsh were rebuked for betting on the outcome of the game, but not suspended. It should be noted that their actions occurred almost 20 years before the Hansie Cronje scandal at a time when it was not known that bookmakers had any influence over players. Had any Australian player of the 2005 Ashes performed any similar action, he would have most likely been banned for life from Test cricket.

After playing in nine successive Ashes series, the 2002-03 was to be Australian captain Steve Waugh’s last against England, and proved to be one of the most emphatic victories he enjoyed against them. The series began with what many regarded as one of the worst captaincy decisions of all time, as Nasser Hussain won the toss for England in the first Test and sent Australia in to bat. By the end of the first day, Australia had scored a staggering 364/2, and placed a stamp of authority on the series as they raced to victory by 384 runs. This was followed by two innings’ victories to Australia, and a fairly comfortable five-wicket win. England only managed to save some pride with a 225-run victory in the final Test.

The most memorable moment of the series came on the second day of the fifth Test at the Sydney Cricket Ground. Leading into the match, Steve Waugh had been heavily scrutinised by selectors and the media over his advancing age and lack of recent form, having not posted a test century since 2001. As this was the last match of the series and the last Test of the Australian summer, Waugh was likely to be dropped from the team if he failed to perform again. In a post-match interview, talking about a defining moment in his career, Steve Waugh predicted eagerly, “It might be yet to come.”

In a stunning display of determination and resolution, he then fulfilled this prophecy by scoring a magnificent and a much needed century on the second afternoon. It came to be known as his ‘Perfect Day’.

The 2005 Ashes series was played with a very high intensity. Many consider the series to have been the most exciting in living memory.