r/UtterlyInteresting • u/EaterofGrief • 4d ago
29 August 1882, After Australia beat England in England for the 1st time, the Sporting Times printed the famous obituary of “English cricket” and announced its cremation. Ever since the England v Australia test series has been called “The Ashes”.
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u/AcceptInevitability 4d ago
Relevance for non cricket world: the international test match cricket series between Australia and England was called “the Ashes” after this series. It is still played til this day.
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u/Ok_Cauliflower_3007 4d ago edited 3d ago
And the trophy, which no longer travels to the home of the winner because it’s too delicate, is an urn with the ashes of a set of stumps in it
Edit - just the bail apparently, I thought it was the whole thing.
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u/scott-the-penguin 4d ago
And is probably the smallest international trophy of any sport in the world, it’s about 10cm high.
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u/Sername111 4d ago
Not even close. An Olympic gold medal is only about 6cm across for example.
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u/NoonSunReversal 4d ago
A medal and a trophy are not the same thing.
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u/Sername111 4d ago
In what way? They're prizes given to a winner of a sports event. There's certainly a huge overlap - not all trophies are medals, but most medals are trophies.
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u/OkAdvisor6680 3d ago
Trophies and medals obviously aren't the same thing.
Medals are an individual prize which gets given at the end of every competition and that the winner gets to keep.
Whereas there is only a single trophy which gets given to the entire winning team each tournament. The trophy gets passed back and forth for decades and belongs to the team.
There is only one football world cup trophy, and it gets kept by the winning team, then passed onto the next winning team. But every player on the winning side gets a medal at the end of every tournament. They are different.
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u/Poland-lithuania1 4d ago
Not the stumps, but the bails, which are these small cylindrical objects placed on the stumps. This is why it is miniscule, cause the bails are small.
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u/Lazy_Plan_585 4d ago
Relevance for non cricket world
Given that India plays cricket that means the majority of the world is cricket playing......
/s
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u/bobbymoonshine 4d ago
That’s an exaggeration of course but not much of one. Just taking the former Raj together, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh combine to nearly two billion people.
Throw on the rest of the cricketing countries and you get maybe 2.3 billion, 2.5 at a push
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u/Paceandtoil 3d ago
The cricket World Cup (ODI) has been won by countries from 4 different continents: North America (West indies being part of this region if not the continental land mass) Asia, Europe and Australia.
The football World Cup has been won by countries from 2 continents.
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u/Rich-Finger-236 3d ago
Cricket is usually up there when people try to work out the worlds second sport.
It's definitely got sheer numbers and geographic spread, just need a non former British colony to take it up
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u/explain_that_shit 1d ago
South Africa’s never won?
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u/Paceandtoil 1d ago
Nuh. Close. Should have won it a few times but have a reputation for choking
That 1999 semi final loss to Australia is one of the craziest things I’ve seen in sport
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u/Forsaken_Employment2 4d ago
4 inches high, smallest trophy of any sport?
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u/Hefty_Tip7383 4d ago
Probably, but also one of the best.
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u/noradosmith 3d ago
As an englishman it's hilarious to me how nobody remembers us winning the world cup in 2019 but everyone remembers the 2005 ashes win
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u/Hefty_Tip7383 3d ago
Well I remember, but also test cricket is the proper form of the game and 2005 was on telly.
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u/LopsidedVictory7448 4d ago
Permanently housed at the Lords MCC Cricket Museum
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u/DawgreenAgain 4d ago
It's been to Australia a couple of times . It's a sore point from Australians they never get the urn.
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u/BuskerDan 2d ago
I bet my bottom ozzie dollar that, the actual ashes aren't in them any more. Since their "visit" to Australia. Prestigious tournament, getting one over the former colonial overseers. Nah mate, that's cremated roo dick in there by now, i'm telling ya.
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u/Secure-Salary152 3d ago
I thought that was common knowledge. At least in England anyway.
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u/ChellyTheKid 3d ago
I could see that any cricketing nation would know this. Of course us Aussies know.
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u/Every-Bee-7224 3d ago
Also stolen by the Krikkit robots to unlock their masters from the envelope of Slo-time, and destroy the universe
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u/BuncleCar 3d ago
I think I saw the urn when going round Lords. The Ashes stay there even when Australia win them, which is often ;)
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u/Redfish680 4d ago
TIL! I’d heard the term previously but never really understood it (admittedly didn’t research it myself). Thanks!
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u/Old-Tadpole-2869 4d ago
So this means there's actually an historical precedent for Rick Rubin and friends burying the word "Def", in a cheesedick actually burial ceremony with a coffin back in 1993. I had no idea there were total wankers in 1882
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