Page "The Ashes" Paragraph 92

After what the MCC saw as the problems of the earlier professional and amateur series they decided to take control of organising tours themselves, and this led to the first MCC tour of Australia in 1903 – 04.

England won it against the odds, and Plum Warner, the England captain, wrote up his version of the tour in his book How We Recovered The Ashes.

The title of this book revived the Ashes legend and it was after this that England v Australia series were customarily referred to as " The Ashes ".