More recent researchers, in particular Ronald Willis and Joy Munns have studied the tour in detail and concluded that the presentation was made after a private cricket match played over Christmas 1882 when the English team were guests of Sir William Clarke, at his property " Rupertswood ", in Sunbury, Victoria.

A more detailed account of how the Ashes were given to Ivo Bligh was outlined by his wife, the Countess of Darnley, in 1930 during a speech at a cricket luncheon.

:“ In 1882, she said, it was first spoken of when the Sporting Times, after the Australians had thoroughly beaten the English at the Oval, wrote an obituary in affectionate memory of English cricket “ whose demise was deeply lamented and the body would be cremated and taken to Australia ”.

However, during the tour of Australia in 2006 / 7, the MCC official accompanying the urn said the veil legend had been discounted, and it was now " 95 % certain " that the urn contains the ashes of a cricket bail.

Australia recovered the Ashes in 1934 and held them until 1953, although no international cricket was possible during the Second World War.

This was the beginning of one of the greatest periods in English cricket history with players such as captain Len Hutton, batsmen Denis Compton, Peter May, Tom Graveney, Colin Cowdrey, bowlers Fred Trueman, Brian Statham, Alec Bedser, Jim Laker, Tony Lock and wicket-keeper Godfrey Evans.

It was in the 1960s that the bipolar dominance of England and Australia in world cricket was seriously challenged for the first time.

Brearley retired from Test cricket in 1979 and was succeeded by Ian Botham, who started the 1981 series as England captain, by which time the WSC split had ended.

But the most dominant Australian player was leg-spinner Shane Warne, whose first delivery in Ashes cricket in 1993, to dismiss Mike Gatting, became known as the Ball of the century.

As late as 1855, the New York press was still devoting more space to coverage of cricket than to baseball.

It was only with the return of the English team and the subsequent use of Bodyline against English players in England by the touring West Indian cricket team in 1933 that demonstrated to the country the dangers it posed.

When he was 15 years old, he played in his first West Indian under-19 youth tournament and that same year, Lara represented West Indies in Under-19 cricket.

Lara played in Trinidad and Tobago junior soccer and table tennis sides but Lara believed that cricket was his path to success, saying that he wanted to emulate his idols Gordon Greenidge, Viv Richards and Roy Fredericks.

On 26 April 2006 Lara was reappointed the captain of the West Indies cricket team for the third time.

In 2009, Lara was made an honorary Member of the Order of Australia ( AM ) for services to West Indian and Australian cricket.

* He was the all-time leading run scorer in Test cricket, a record he attained on 26 November 2005 until surpassed by Sachin Tendulkar on 17 October 2008.

The ICC Twenty20 Cricket World Cup in South Africa in 2007 was the first international cricket event to have cheerleaders.

The first ever international cricket match was played between Canada and the United States, on the 24 and 25 September 1844.

This was the only appearance of cricket at the Summer Olympics.

The first multilateral competition at international level was the 1912 Triangular Tournament, a Test cricket tournament played in England between all three Test-playing nations at the time: England, Australia and South Africa.

The event was not a success: the summer was exceptionally wet, making play difficult on damp uncovered pitches, and attendances were poor, attributed to a " surfeit of cricket ".

In subsequent years, international Test cricket has generally been organised as bilateral series: a multilateral Test tournament was not organised again until the quadrangular Asian Test Championship in 1999.

Richard " Richie " Benaud OBE (; born 6 October 1930 ) is a former Australian cricketer who, since his retirement from international cricket in 1964, has become a highly regarded commentator on the game.

It is also highly probable that the need for attacking or defensive strategies can switch frequently as a cricket match progresses.

He was widely regarded as an instrumental component in Australia's rise to Test cricket dominance, and his captaincy was regarded as adventurous and highly effective.

Tactically, ODI cricket was transformed by Sri Lanka's World Cup success, when it employed the highly aggressive opening pair of Sanath Jayasuriya and Romesh Kaluwitharana.

Joel Garner ( born 16 December 1952 ), also known as " Big Joel " or " Big Bird ", is a former West Indian cricketer, and a member of the highly regarded late 1970s and early ' 80s West Indies cricket teams.

The feeling in many quarters was that when the Australian Board first found Packer at their throats, the rest of the cricket world supported them to the hilt ; even to the extent of highly expensive court cases which cricket could ill afford.

In later years Laker was a highly regarded cricket commentator for BBC television.

He is one of the most highly regarded fast-medium pace bowlers in cricketing history, and a leading contributor to Australia's domination of world cricket from the mid-1990s to the early 21st century.

The Upper Field's cricket square is most highly regarded.

His maiden speech expressed the hope that the England cricket team would refuse to play a tour in apartheid South Africa, a highly unusual opinion for a Conservative.

In English county cricket, Donald enjoyed a long and highly successful career with Warwickshire.

When he observed, at the start of the 1893 cricket season, the dedication with which Ranjitsinhji was practising in the nets to increase his concentration against the highly regarded professional bowlers Tom Richardson and Bill Lockwood, Jackson asked Lockwood for his opinion.

For example cricket is highly dependent on its TV contract, which was worth £ 55 million a year for the 2006-09 seasons.

A highly talented all-round sportsman, he went to St John's College, Cambridge, and won Blues at cricket, squash, rugby fives and field hockey.

Although himself a highly educated amateur and a gentleman he realised that the old class divisions in English cricket were breaking down and under Len Hutton's leadership the amateur and professional had merged.

Today the village is renowned throughout Ireland for its thriving and highly successful cricket team, which was established in 1888.

This section includes the Chronicle ( noteworthy events from the previous year ), reviews of other cricket books published in the year, noteworthy retirements and the highly regarded obituaries section among others.

The one-day series went slightly better, with Bangladesh A winning two, losing one and abandoning a fourth, but for a second string national team against mainly second elevens from English domestic cricket, it was a highly disappointing tour.

* Spade bit: A historic vaquero design with straight, highly decorated shanks and a mouthpiece that includes a straight bar, a narrow port with a cricket, and a " spoon ," a flat, partly rounded plate affixed above the port, supported by braces on either side.

Cricket nets are very common site in the gardens of keen cricketers and are probably rightfully considered highly important to the development of young cricket players.

Butcher is highly credited for reviving Zimbabwean cricket as the national and domestic game greatly improved.

Known as the ‘ Chief Justice ’ he was, in Pollard ’ s view, “ a softly-spoken, imperturbable character … precise, unemotional, lacking in sentiment … He was a stickler for decorum … highly regarded by all players for his accuracy and impartiality .” Johnnie Moyes, who knew him well " appreciated his skill, his modesty, his love for cricket " and ranked him in the top three umpires he had seen, along with George Hele and Mel McInnes.