Ashes urn set for rare Australia visit

The Ashes urn will make its first journey to Australia in 12 years later this year when it is displayed in the State Library Victoria in Melbourne, Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) announced Wednesday.

The urn, which traditionally resides in the MCC museum at its Lord's ground headquarters, regardless of the result of an England-Australia Test series, will be on display in the Library's 'Velvet, Iron, Ashes' exhibition from December 2019 until February 2020.

By then the latest Ashes series between Test cricket's oldest rivals will have been completed, with England staging a five-match series from August 1 to September 16 as they look to atone for a 4-0 away drubbing in 2017/18.

This will be only the third time the urn has travelled to Australia; it was exhibited for less than a week during the country's 1988 Bicentennial celebrations and visited six cities in three months during the 2006/07 Ashes series.

England and Australia played what is now considered to be the first men's cricket Test match at Melbourne in 1877.

The Ashes themselves came into being following England's first home defeat by Australia at The Oval in London in 1882.

Afterwards, the Sporting Times newspaper published a mock obituary of English cricket that concluded by saying: "The body will be cremated and the ashes taken to Australia."
"The story of the Ashes Urn is one that captivates so many people around the world and the State Library Victoria's exhibition is a very fitting place for its story to be told."