The Ashes
The Ashes is a Test cricket series played between England and Australia. The Ashes are regarded as being held by the team that most recently won the Test series. If the test series is drawn, the team that currently holds the Ashes retains the trophy. The term originated in a satirical obituary published in a British newspaper, "The Sporting Times", immediately after Australia's 1882 victory at The Oval, its first Test win on English soil. The obituary stated that English cricket had died, and "the body will be cremated and the ashes taken to Australia". The mythical ashes immediately became associated with the 1882–83 series played in Australia, before which the English captain Ivo Bligh had vowed to "regain those ashes". The English media therefore dubbed the tour "the quest to regain the Ashes".
History of English cricket from 1919 to 1939
In the 21 seasons between the wars, England took part in 120 Test matches as part of fifteen home and thirteen away series. Several other first-class tours were organised by Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) and private individuals like Sir Julien Cahn and Lionel Tennyson. Having won The Ashes in 1926 and successfully defended them in 1928–29, England thereafter had to face the formidable challenge of Don Bradman, whose heavy scoring was the key difference between England and Australia through the 1930s. Under the captaincy of Douglas Jardine in 1932–33, England controversially deployed so-called "leg theory", better known as "bodyline", in order to regain the Ashes but nearly caused an international incident by doing so.