National humiliation inspired one of the world’s great sporting events | Cricket | Sport

The tension within the packed crowd of 20,000 at the Oval cricket ground in August 1882 was almost unbearable. As England moved painfully slowly towards the modest target set by Australia, the pressure was becoming too much for some spectators. One man reportedly died of a heart attack, while the other reportedly chewed on the handle of his umbrella.

This tension also affected the English batsmen, who lost wickets at regular intervals; most of these belonged to Australian bowler Frederick Spofforth, known as “The Devil” for his relentless hostility. “Spofforth was no bowler; he was a hypnotist,” said England player Billy Barnes. The home team was dismissed with 77 points and fell behind by only seven points.

As cricket writer Tim Wigmore describes in his monumental new history of Test cricket, this episode turned out to be a fateful moment for the sport. England and Australia had been playing Test matches since March 1877, but the Oval humiliation was the national team’s first home defeat by any visiting team from Down Under. The result sent a shockwave through the sports-loving British public.

Satirizing this mood of despair, Reginald Shirley Brooks, a boozy and irreverent journalist working for The Sporting Times, wrote a mock obituary for the match: “To the memory of the English cricketer who died at the Oval on 29 August 1882. Deeply mourned by a wide circle of friends and acquaintances. RIP. Note: The body will be cremated and the ashes taken to Australia.”

Brooks’s choice of words suggested that, in addition to mocking the hysteria resulting from Britain’s defeat, he also wanted to emphasize a political message about cremation, which was still illegal in Britain in 1882. Both Brooks and his father were strong advocates of this practice; but neither lived to see the practice legalized in 1902.

But the joke about the death of English cricket had a much more immediate effect. That winter, a team representing England, led by the aristocrat Ivo Bligh, toured Australia. After the defeat at the Oval, Bligh declared with peace of mind that he was “in search of the Ashes”.

The slapstick theme continued after Bligh’s team won the series; This victory caused three young ladies in Melbourne to present him with a small terracotta urn said to contain the ashes of a burnt cricket bail. Thus, the great sports tradition that continues to exist until today was born.

Bligh brought home not only Ashes, but also a bride named Florence Morphy, who worked as a governess in Melbourne and was the leader of the trio who presented Bligh with the vase. Instantly smitten, Bligh became the only England captain to propose and accept during a Test match!

Of his bride-to-be, he wrote to his family: “A truly lovelier character than I have ever met.” Later in their marriage, she became a successful romantic novelist. Since her husband’s victory, the duel between England and Australia has become one of the most prestigious duels in international sport, with a unique, rich legacy matched by the fierceness of the rivalry.

During a match in 1989, England’s exhausted batsman Robin Smith asked if a drink could be brought to him. “No! What do you think this is, a tea party,” said tough-minded Australian captain Allan Border.

More recently, there was a storm of controversy at Lord’s in 2023 over the stupefaction of England batsman Jonny Bairstow, who walked out of his crease thinking the ball was dead. To many angry critics, the Australians’ actions violated the ethics, if not the rules, of the game.

But this episode pales in comparison to the most explosive controversy that erupted in the 1932/33 Ashes series, when England’s tough, ruthless captain Douglas Jardine used his battery of fast bowlers, led by Harold Larwood, to intimidate the Australian batting line-up with persistent short-pitched bowling.

The main aim was to stop the run flow of the prolific young Australian Don Bradman, the greatest batsman the world had ever seen. Jardine’s tactics worked. England won the series, with Bradman relegated to mortal status. But the victory came at a huge cost. The England team were accused of “unsporting” behavior after two Australians were tackled to the ground by dangerous bouncers, and diplomatic relations between the two countries nearly came to a breaking point.

He told Rockley Wilson, one of Jardine’s former teachers at Winchester, presciently when the decision was made to put him in charge of the 1932/33 tour: “He will regain the Ashes but he may lose an Empire.”

Ashes competition kicks off again this week as the First Test of this winter series kicks off overnight in Perth [NOV 20/21]. It will be a tough challenge for England, given that Australia have looked virtually unbeatable at home for so long. In the last 35 years, England have only won a single round in 2010/11 and have faced a whitewash twice during that time: 2006/7 and 2013/4.

Despite this sorry record, an unprecedented number of England fans will travel to Australia this winter. Barmy Army, the official travel organizer for England fans, has sold 40,000 packs for the 2025/6 series; This figure is three times that of the 2017/18 season. The excited anticipation is particularly strong for this series due to England’s entertaining style known as “Basball”, which prioritizes aggressive batting and was developed by captain Ben Stokes together with coach Brendon McCullum.

For decades, pessimists have been predicting the slow death of cricket, especially its five-day Test version, but the game is in reasonably healthy shape, bolstered by the wealth of the Indian Premier League and the lucrative sales of broadcasting rights. The development of Anglo-Australian cricket is important because the sport is part of our shared cultural landscape. Their passions are woven into the fabric of our history; Their drama shaped relations between the two democracies.

The sense of pride created by the early victories over England in Australia was a vital force in building the spirit of nationhood in the new country; this only became official in 1901, when six separate colonies were brought together into a self-governing federation. Similarly, by the late Victorian era, cricket had become not only England’s national sport but also a metaphor for the highest moral values ​​in our national character; this was reflected in expressions such as “not cricket” or “playing with a straight bat”.

Just as the late Shane Warne, the greatest leg-spin bowler of all time, epitomized several key Australian traits such as enthusiasm, indefatigability, determination and self-belief, England’s greatest ever batsman, Sir Jack Hobbs, is often said to embody the classic English qualities of kindness, caution, humility and restraint.

Left-wing Labor politician Harold Laski wrote in an article in 1931: “Hobbs is a typical legendary Englishman. If you meet him you would never suspect that he is an extraordinary person. He never boasts about himself. He goes about his business quietly, simply and efficiently.”

Both Hobbs and Warne feature prominently in Tim Wigmore’s epic history. Although he first played the Tests in 1907, Hobbs remains the top scorer for England in the Ashes to this day; Warne, who unfortunately died in 2022 at the age of just 52, is still the greatest wicket-taker in Ashes history.

In a typically vivid passage in his book, Wigmore describes how Warne came onto the stage to make his debut against England at Manchester’s Old Trafford in 1993. His first delivery, bowled on the afternoon of the second day of the match, was a mesmerizing display of wizardry, soaring through the air towards England batsman Mike Gatting. Then, when he landed, he turned violently from the leg side, jumped past Gatting’s groping bat and crashed into the top of the off stump.

Barely comprehending what he had witnessed, Gatting walked slowly towards the mansion with a confused expression on his face.

The ‘Ball of the Century’, as it was known, heralded both the revival of leg-spin, cricket’s most fascinating art form, and the continuation of Australia’s mastery of the Ashes, which remained unbroken until Michael Vaughan guided England to victory in the 2005 encounter, now universally regarded as one of the greatest series.

As Wigmore’s widely researched book shows, during almost 150 years of Test cricket, Australia and England were almost evenly matched; The first had 34 series wins, the second had 32 wins. Australia’s recent home dominance has been offset by a series of outstanding performances from England; such as Ben Stokes’ victory at Headingley in 2019, coming from defeat and with the last man at the crease. aim. At Headingley, as in the 1981 Test, it was another miracle, with Ian Botham reaching 149 with a tailspin, followed by Bob Willis, bowling like the wind, taking eight for 43.

From Geoff Boycott to Don Bradman, the cavalcade of sporting minds always continues. This winter is a chance for new heroes to write themselves into the record books and prove their star greatness.

• Test Cricket: A History (Quercus, £30) by Tim Wigmore is out now