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Few sporting rivalries evoke as much passion among fans as The Ashes cricket series between England and Australia does. It is a storied rivalry that goes back nearly 130 years to 1882 when Australia beat England in a Test match at the Oval cricket ground.

The match marked the first time that an Australian cricket team had beaten the British in a Test match on their home soil. The loss provoked bitter lamentations in the local media about the demise of English cricket, especially because the Australian team had also won four out of seven preliminary games in the run-up to the Test match at the Oval.

British newspaper, The Sporting Times, ran a satirical obituary mourning the death of English cricket and noted how the body would be cremated and the ashes sent to Australia with the returning Aussie team. When England toured Australia in 1882-1883, the English media promptly labelled the series as a quest to regain The Ashes, and a legend was born.

During the tour of 1882-1883, an Australian lady named Annie Fletcher from a suburb of Sydney presented visiting English captain Francis Bligh with a velvet bag for storing the imaginary Ashes of English cricket and for taking it back to England after the series.

Later during the same tour, a group of women from Melbourne who saw Fletcher’s bag decided that something grander was needed. So, they presented Bligh with a fancy silver urn containing the ashes of what is believed, to have been either a cricket stump or a cricket ball. The English team won that series and The Ashes were presented to members of the Lords Cricket Ground in England. They were later returned to Bligh who kept it in his possession until his death in 1927.

Following Bligh’s demise, the urn containing The Ashes was gifted by Bligh’s widow to the Marylebone Cricket Club which has kept it on permanent display ever since.

Despite popular perception, the actual urn containing The Ashes has never been presented as an award to the winning team in a cricket series between England and Australia. Winning teams have often held up replicas of the urn. Since 1998-99, a crystal replica of the original urn has been handed to the winner of The Ashes.

Over the decades, The Ashes series has been a source of endless rivalry between cricketing fans from England and Australia. At times it has even led to political tensions between the two nations. In 1932-33 for instance, England’s use of a controversial bowling technique dubbed Bodyline Bowling to rein in Australian batting prodigy Donald Bradman, required high-level diplomatic meetings between the two nations to resolve. That series prompted a change in cricket laws to ban Bodyline tactics.

The Ashes series today is played every two years with both countries hosting it on an alternating basis.

As of 2009, a total of 65 Ashes Test series representing a total of 305 individual Test matches have been played between England and Australia. Out of this, the Aussies have won 31 of the Series while the English have won 29. A total of 5 Test series were drawn.

Both sides have tended to do better when playing in their own countries, with Australia claiming 17 of its 31 series victories at home, while 16 out of England’s 29 series wins have been in England.

The current holder of The Ashes is England which won the last series 2-1 with two of the test matches being drawn. The next Ashes series is scheduled to begin on November 25.

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Read great Ashes trivia on live cricket scores at BigPond Sports.

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Official international cricket matches, called Test Matches, are played between ten countries: South Africa, Bangladesh, Zimbabwe, Pakistan, India, Sri Lanka, West Indies, New Zealand, Australia and England. The game is played outdoors on uncovered pitches and seasons are played during the driest months of the year in each specific country. A famous cricket series, and longest running competition titled The Ashes, is a significant rivalry between England and Australia.

Every other year, the hosting country of The Ashes changes and a replica of the original urn is presented to the winning captain of the Series.

The urn of Ashes is symbolic of the 1882 Series when Australia beat England on their home soil for the first time. Through the years the winning team changes between the countries as a result of various legendary players and competitive national resolve.

In recent years Aussie teams have dominated The Ashes matches. England has won the trophy only two times since the 1986/87 Series. Both of these wins were on English soil, but the 2010/11 Series returns to Australia from November 2010 to January 2011.

The Ashes Series begins with the First Test in Brisbane on 25 November 2010. The Aussies are hopeful that their winning record at home will continue in this contest.

Currently, the Australian cricket team has a losing streak of seven matches in all forms of the game. Going back to July this is the longest losing streak in more than twelve years. The contest with Sri Lanka was affected by rain, but the visiting young team dominated for the first time ever on Australian soil.

Recent sport legends have retired from the Aussie team, and no current team members have emerged to save them from a losing record.

Not only is the Aussie team losing matches, their game also seems to be losing interest with the fans.

In the Sri Lanka match an estimated ninety per cent of the crowd was noisy Sri Lankan fans. Varieties of excuses are blamed for the lack of attendance, but most consider the rain, the schedule and lack of talent on the Australian team. Hopes are resting on improving attendance during The Ashes Series when England comes to play.

Aussie captain Ricky Ponting, is considered to be an outstanding batsman and the team, which is currently ranked #5 with 4061 points, are hoping to have the home field advantage to win The Ashes trophy this year.

Playing in his seventh Ashes series and his fourth as captain, Ricky Ponting will be looking to the experienced Michael Clarke and the young Steve Smith to lead the way to victory.

The series began from English colonisation of Australia giving a cultural link between players in history, language and sporting values.

England’s current team gives the visitors a chance to take the trophy back to England. They are off to a better start than the Aussies in 2010, but advantage goes to the hosting team. The anticipated Ashes series should be an entertaining competition between long-time rivals.

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Impress your mates with your Ashes trivia – read live cricket scores at BigPond Sports.

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Some of our players today don’t seem too sure who or what they are representing. Even though the board is not behaving well they must still have personal pride”.

These are the precious comments of the real eager beaver, head honcho of West Indies Cricket, Sir Vivian Richards.

Richards played fifty test matches as skipper. He decorated his wonderful career as only captain of West Indies who never lose a Test Series. His as high as a kite career for both Test and ODIs are one of the best from rest of the world, without any controversies.

Despite at his time, T20 was not invented; he has optimum interest in this sort of contests.

“I believe there is room for all three forms of the game but the administrators have to get their scheduling right,” he said.

Richards was a batsman who always gave fears to any bowler, by his aggressive and attacking bating art. It was Richards whose abilities especially in tense situations as blessing in disguise, were often accepted by the all time terrific bowlers.

Richards was a very powerful right-handed batsman who was a seasoned batsman of both fashion of cricket, he was clinger when he was playing test cricket and in ODI he converted himself as the best feeding frenzy. In his 17 years career he played without helmet in all nature of cricket, he is the player who always regarded as most devastated and ruler by his opponent, fans, journalists and rest of world.

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The game of Cricket has a long history dating back to English royalty in the 1600′s as a source of activity, competition, and sport. In the 1800′s England introduced the game to their colony, Australia, where interest grew and became the national sport. The early Australian teams consisted of mostly Aboriginal players that toured around England, which began a rivalry between England and Australia.

Aussies enjoy sports of many types including golf, tennis, rugby, and several styles of football. However, no sport in the nation tops the attention given to Cricket and the Ashes series, a Test between England and the Australian National Cricket Team.

For more than two hundred years the Australian nation has enjoyed the game of cricket, as it has become popular with more than one half million men, women, and children.

The game is played on four levels, by the middle and working class, in the bush, and in every state.

Cricket is played on an oval-shaped field using a bat, ball and gloves. Two teams of eleven players each compete for an agreed amount of time and number of innings with equal turns at batting and fielding. A formal game of cricket may last for an afternoon, or go for several days. Runs are scored by a batsman in one of four ways, and the team with the most runs is the winner.

In Australia, the National Team is made up of men that make a living playing cricket. As a result of the popularity of the game, many players become legends and national heroes based on brilliant performances on the field. Footwork and stamina are key to being successful as a cricket player. While several players have all-time best rankings, Sir Donald Bradman is considered to be the greatest batsman of all time.

During a twenty-year career that began before World War II, Bradman is credited with a Test batting average of 99.94, a feat that will likely never be matched. Bradman is the only Australian to be knighted for his achievements in the game of cricket. The Bradman Foundation, established in Sir Donald’s name supports youth cricket across the continent.

More recently, Shane Warne and Glenn McGrath retired as two of the all-time top four greatest bowlers. Warne’s on-the-field reputation was especially impressive in Ashes and World Cup matches. He is currently ranked seventh all-time most catches as a fielder in Test cricket. McGrath retired as the third highest wicket taker in Test cricket.

Leading the National Team into the 2010/11 Ashes competition beginning on 25 November in Brisbane, captain Ricky Ponting is counting on victory going to the hosting team. Ponting is one of two most experienced players on the Aussie team playing his seventh Ashes series and his fourth as captain.

Currently holding the championship urn, England won the trophy in the 2008/09 Test. In favour of the hosting Aussie team, England last won that trophy on Australian soil almost twenty-four years ago.

BigPond Sports –

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What don’t you know about the Ashes? Get curious facts about The Ashes on live cricket scores at BigPond Sports.

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Just before the turn of the 21st century, the International Cricket had a vision. It decided that cricket should become a truly global game. The game is already watched by millions across the globe- thanks in no small part to India’s burgeoning population. However, the ICC wants to develop the game beyond traditional territories.

Through the ICC Associate program, more teams are playing cricket. The Cricket World Cup – the third largest sporting event in the world – seems less like the Commonwealth Cup. The last World Cup had as many as sixteen teams, including Holland, Ireland and Bermuda. Does this indicate that cricket’s base is widening or is this just window-dressing?

Test cricket has a core of ten teams. These are the more cricket-crazy nations of the world. Interestingly, even the interest in Test cricket and One-day internationals in these countries was waning for some time. The decline in the standard and popularity of traditional forms of cricket (not Twenty20) in some of the traditional powerhouses partially reveals the ridiculous optimism of the ICC’s expansion program.

Pakistan did not play a Test series in 2008, having been plagued by political problems and fear of terrorist attacks. The West Indies Cricket Board is in debt and its team’s performance on the field embarrasses the entire English-speaking Caribbean. New Zealand finds itself towards the bottom of the Test table. To compound the problem, cricket in New Zealand is well behind rugby as a national sport. The ICC should focus on helping underperformers like these and the perennial strugglers (Bangladesh and Zimbabwe) before expanding the game.

Most fans, even in so-called cricket countries, would admit that cricket is an acquired taste. The game is slow and seems boring to many. The ICC has even implemented changes to ODIs to make them “sexier” and more appealing to existing cricket fans. The ICC would have trouble selling the longer versions of cricket (even the 50-overs per side format is protracted) to non-traditional nations where cricket was never part of the culture.

Cricket purists would argue that T20 cricket is not even real cricket. They point out that if the ICC has to change the format of the games to make it appeal to other countries, it is not really a genuine expansion of the base of cricket. The shortest form of the game doesn’t showcase all that cricket has to offer.

On the other hand, traditional countries will have a huge advantage in T20. Even if the ICC expands the game using the Twenty20 version, there will still be a huge gap in quality. Since people want to see contests in sport, this could even dent T20′s popularity in the long run.

The ICC has crippled its own initiative by forcing traditional nations to play too much cricket through its Future Tours program. Then, it wants to insert its tournaments like Champions’ Cup and World Cups (T20 and ODI) into the mix. The volume of cricket between Test nations is so high that it’s impractical for the strong sides to play the Associate nations, even those with ODI status like Kenya and Ireland. Without playing consistently at a higher level, how are these sides ever going to improve significantly?

Another demonstration of the great pipe-dream that is the ICC’s expansion initiative is the composition of the Associate teams. Cricket teams like the USA, Canada and Holland use expatriates from cricket-playing nations to fill their sides. Some of the players are geriatric players who played international or domestic cricket for (or in) other countries. Since that’s the case, cricket could never be considered anywhere near a national sport in those nations; just an expat pastime.

The ICC’s initiative seemed like a good idea initially, but it is surely anti-reality. In business we know about market penetration (developing existing markets) and market expansion (developing new markets). The ICC should follow the market penetration model before seeking expansion.

The fact is that cricket is facing a lot more competition from other sports. The worst part is the game faces competition from itself!! The T20 format is competing with ODIs and Test cricket for the attention of fringe fans. To be fair, the ICC started its expansion initiative before 2000. However, hindsight reveals the initiative to be a pipe dream.

About the Author:

Darrell Victor is a freelance writer and cricket enthusiast from the Caribbean. For articles on West Indies cricket, read:

Reasons for the decline of West Indies cricket: http://www.helium.com/items/1264594-west-indies-cricket

A West Indian Perspective on Test cricket: http://www.helium.com/items/1258936-test-cricket

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Pundits may argue that South Africas test cricket breakthrough has already been realised with an historic series win over the Australians in their own back yard. However, if we are talking ICC ranking, then the South Africans may have to wait a tad longer before they can claim the crown of test cricket.

The battle lines have been drawn

The battle lines have been firmly etched into the rich, fertile African soil with Graeme Smiths men returning from Oz with the coveted scalp of the omnipotent baggy greens but nothing is ever a done deal in the world of sport, especially not between two such traditionally competitive sides.

Although Ricky Pontings men were smeared with the unenviable title of underdog upon their arrival on the Dark Continent, they have been anything but. With a pugnacious but sublimely elegant batsman at the helm and an entire harem of young bloods fighting for a place on the side of the most successful cricket team in history, the Australians have fought back – and hard.

New referral system unkind to Smith & Co

Not even the brand new referral system has been kind to Smith and his obviously undercooked mob. Although it may be safe to say that many of the referrals sent up to the TV umpire by the current number two in world cricket were based on raw emotion rather than on concrete fact, there were many rather surprising decisions taken by the third umpire that have resulted in negative decisions for the hosts.

Armchair critics have been quick to voice their disapproval of a system that has been rather unkind to the home side, but any sports information system that can assist in erasing or minimising poor umpiring decisions can only be a good thing for the future of test cricket.

Smith, who has had his hand fractured by the same opponents for a second time in as many months, will spend the rest of the series nursing his wounds in the dressing room and, without the smouldering leviathan at the forefront of the Protea assault, there is growing doubt that the South Africans will be able to lift themselves from a distinctly dastardly display to date.

Only an attack by bat and ball will decide an outcome

At the end of the day, it isnt the 3D cricket ball tracking, the hotspot on the bat or the startled lines of the snickometer that decides a cricket test. It is the unfaltering attack by both bat and ball that claims a test victory; a victory often likened to a battle of attrition in the trenches.

Any team or individual that is elevated to the top spot in world sport for any length of time has to be the best and, sadly, the Proteas winning ways in Australia may well have been the exception rather than the rule.

Amelia Stenson -

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The title of this article could perhaps be answered in two words. Probably not. South Africa will not be very happy at all with last weeks result and their batsmen will be wanting a big wake up call as they begin play again on Sunday. Although at the time of going to press the score stands at 51 runs for 2 wickets.

The odds on England winning the series are relatively poor although this is to be expected after the demolition of the SOuth African batsmen in the 1st test. England winning the series, which includes two further tests in the coming month, is currently at a poor 7/4 on.

England do have a very good cricket team at the moment and in particular at test level. Winning one test in South Africa is reasonably possible but winning two would be miraculous and will leave South African cricket selectors needing to either be removed or perhaps be given 6 of the best, rather than their batting selections going for sixes themselves.

Should South Africa decide to wake up and play the sort of cricket they are very capable of then the series draw will be more likely and with odds of 5/2 for that, you would wise to look into it. Do not take the word of a writer however, we could be watching an English 3-0 whitewash of South Africa which no one would have seen coming.

With Australia having been bowled out for 127 by Pakistan recently it looks to be the time of the bowlers. Bowlers are getting stronger, they have better training techniques and they seem to be much more consistent on a long term basis. This has to be due to the bowling coaches who have created fresher methods of keeping their bowlers fit and should England continue in this way there will be much movement at the top of the Test table. Should SOuth Africa find themselves and win the test series 2-1 then you will get prices of around 9/2 at the best online bookmakers.

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India and Sri Lanka match had the perfect fairy style start to the series with Muralitharan reaching the milestone of 800 wickets in the final test. India and Sri Lanka  live cricket had got the best momentum when Muralitharan was bowling on the day five of the first test against India.India was trying desperately to avoid  innings defeat and India lost the match. India and Sri Lanka match will be a testing ground for Indian bowling resource and there has been accusations lately that India does not deserve to be the number one in tests. India and Sri Lanka  cricket match will be also testing India’s famed middle order

There has been more India and Sri Lanka cricket matches of late. India is ranked number one in test ranking and  will be  playing in Sri Lanka three test matches. Sri Lanka is ranked fourth in test. Cricket Team India would be trying hard to retain there Top Spot in ICC test Cricket ranking.

Cricket India would be a facing a great challenge to retain that spot as the Top spot Indian Cricket bowlers are out of the team because of the Injuries.

Let’s see how the Mahendra Singh Dhoni plans out the strategies to retain the Test ranking.

India and Sri Lanka  live test cricket has been telecast in Ten Sports and has been available through Internet. India and Sri Lanka  cricket match will not be using the UDRS (Umpire Decision Review system) . India and Sri Lanka  live cricket has seen the entry of Sanath Jayasuriya as cricket analyst in Ten Sports.

All the live cricketing action and Live cricket scores and ball by ball commentary can be seen online at cricandcric.com

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Test cricket is the traditional from of cricket that has always been very popular among people those who are big fans of the game. Earlier when the game was played, only test matches were played and the transformation to playing the One Matches started at a much later stage. Till date you will find players who no doubt play One day matches but they swear by test matches and test cricket. Traditional things whether it in any aspect never diminish and the same applies to test cricket. Till date all players those who are actively playing in the international level are anytime willing to play test cricket along with one day internationals. There are many players that have played one day games but are yet to make their debut in the test arena. All players dream of playing test cricket, but one must also remember that all players do not have the capacity to play in test cricket.

Test cricket is played over a period of five days and for people who are not serious lovers of the game, this can be very boring. In test cricket both the teams get equal chance to show their skills and prove their capabilities over a period of five days. After the toss, the team that wins it has the power to decide if his team will bat first or bowl first in the game. Many factors are taken to consideration by the captain of the team to decide if his team will bat or bowl first. Some of the factors considered are composition of the team, nature of the pitch, capability of the players and also the current from of the player. Generally in test cricket teams that win the toss opt to bat first but sometimes the reverse also happens.

A very interesting aspect of test cricket is that in spite of playing for five days, there can be a draw. The team batting first will set a score for the other team to chase and the team can go on batting till all the players are dismissed by the opposition or the team scores a very big score. If all the players of the team are not out, and the team gets a very high score, they can declare their innings finished. The other team will then have to chase that target and here too the same thing applies. The other team will keep on batting till all the players are out or till they reach the target that is set, and overcome the score whichever happens first.

In today’s context the way in which test matches are played have undergone huge changes. This is one reason why results have stared coming in more often then before. Teams have become increasingly competitive and this has made them take certain decisions that have made results more of a possibility. Decision of the captain about when to declare an innings and what score to set for the opposition is crucial in determining match outcomes. Test cricket is being revived again these days and all leading teams take part in test cricket. Now we may well see a World Cup of Test Cricket.

Ella Wilson is a cricket fanatic. She simply loves the game and tries to catch live action no matter where she is. At Stickiewicket she works on Online cricket score, test cricket, live cricket score, and cricket world cup among other things.You can see her works at http://www.stickiewicket.com

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