310. The Origin of The Ashes & The Killer Cricket Scandal (Part 1)

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0:28Hello and welcome to Empire with me, Anita Arnon. And me, William Durumpal. So we're taking a little break from Writers of Empire for a little bit of a sporting interlude, if you will. We're going to talk about the history of cricket and the way in which it is completely intertwined with the history of empire. In the next three episodes, two that you get anyway, one special bonus if you're a member of our club, we're going to be talking about the relationships of England, the mother country, if you will, and her former colonies. So we'll be covering Australia and Australian cricket, especially the Ashes.

1:05We'll be talking about the test cricket history of countries like India. And in our special bonus, we'll be talking about the West Indies and South Africa. These are episodes which even if you're not into cricket, you can still enjoy because they are wound around huge seismic changes in the political landscape of the empire. but also gigantic characters exist in these stories. So we really do hope you enjoy it and it seems like a good time to do it because the ashes are underway. Two sides of the world are coming together in one of the biggest cricketing grudge matches that there is, the ashes.

1:48Between November 2025 and January 2026, England and her one-time colony are going to be slugging it out for a small terracotta urn that once, and it's not this one, this is a replica, but once contained the ashes of, it depends who you talk to, cricket stumps or the ball used in the very first match. So we're going to talk about that. We're going to talk about the international rivalry, but I mean, this represents so much more, doesn't it, Willie? It does. I've just come back from Australia this weekend and people were talking about it and I got several people telling me all about the history of the, whether it's bales or balls.

2:26So I feel very much part of this conversation already, although it's not my normal end of the market. I should say I grew up with a brother who was a professional cricketer, and he managed to put me off the game almost completely. And all my childhood, but I was longing to watch cartoons. All that was on was the sound of the cricket and the noise of bat against ball. And it's given me a distance. Anyway, I'm looking forward to leaping back in now because in this podcast we are going to be looking at the origin of well the whole export of cricket the origin of the ashes where to begin where did it start we're going to talk about some of the giants of the game like wg grace and don bradman and others you may not be familiar with i have to say i wasn't until i started reading for this like fred the demon Spofforth and Captain Bly, Ivo Bly, not to be confused with the captain of the Bounty.

3:23Damn your eyes! Captain of the Bounty. Shivermitimbers, all of that kind of thing. And this Captain Bly wasn't Captain of the Bounty but was captain of the English side which went to a shocking defeat in 1882 of which we will talk more. This is a really compelling story about toffs versus commoners the old world versus the new world. A kindling of a Republican spirit down under, imperial prejudices. I mean, it's packed full of all of that kind of stuff. And also, this is a spread of a story to other parts of the British Empire as well. And in the second of this series, we're going to talk about the history of cricket in the Indian subcontinent.

4:02And we're also going to talk about in a third episode, a very special bonus for you about cricket in the West Indies. If you want to get all of that in one innings, see what I did there, go to empirepoduk.com. That's empirepoduk.com. But it's true to say, you know, the history of cricket runs like embroidery through the fabric of empire. And to unpick it for us today, I'm delighted to say we have Tim Wigmore, author of Test Cricket, A History. It's just been shortlisted for the William Hill Sports Book of the Year. Congratulations, Tim. Tim's also one of the lead cricket correspondents for the Daily Telegraph and a host of other publications.

4:39Thank you so much for being with us, Tim. Thank you, Anita. Thanks very much for having me. And congratulations. Perfect Christmas present, of course. It is, just in time. Just in time, perfectly timed. Tim, before we get into the ashes, I always like to do origin stories of all these things we talk about. And just give us literally a micro history of when does cricket begin and when does test cricket begin? Because it is before the ashes, isn't it? I mean, it's way before, predates the ashes. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's a long time before the ashes. Yeah, yeah. The exact roots of cricket have been lost to history, as they say.

5:11So there's all these stories of, you know, French peasants playing in the 14th century. We could assume a myth. Yes, although I suppose playing with something like a ball and something like a bat, that is very possible. What we think of as cricket, it basically begins in the 17th century in England. And the first scorecard, it would be very recognisable, was for a game in 1744. The first match-fixing gambling cricket is 1817. Gambling has always been a big part of cricket. I think there's a great story then of two teams playing each other and basically both teams have been bribed to lose. So you get Battsman trying to get out against Bollers trying to knock it out.

5:52That would have been the funniest match to watch where they're both trying to lose. The players are sort of defending themselves to the bookmakers by saying, you know, I'm honest, I did what I was paid to do. So, yeah, and then you have the mid-18th century, you have more and more matches in England and attempts to sort of actually codify the laws. because before people are sort of fighting about what are the actual rules of each game being played. And actually, amazingly, the first international match, first international fixture of any sport, 1844, it's in Manhattan, it's USA and Canada. In Manhattan?

6:24In Manhattan. Those great cricketing nations, America and Canada. Seriously. Exactly. It's an amazing bit of that history there. And then the first English tour to Australia is 1861 when they arrive on Christmas Eve in Port Melbourne and there's 10 ,000 people there to welcome them. That's the first English tour by Australia, but it's still 18 years away from the first Test match. Let's talk about the inception of what we're here to chat about, the Ashes, you know, that big slugfest that is the Ashes, that has brought us sledging, that has brought us controversy, that has brought us so much joy and so much pleasure.

6:59We can say the 1880s is when we see this great cricketing rivalry born. And just to give you a little bit of context, So, you know, Queen Victoria is the longest serving monarch in British history until Queen Elizabeth, of course. She's at the height of her powers. It's a huge turning point for the British Empire, a decade of rapid expansion, political change, imperial competition, social transformation. And this is the decade, again, just to give you a little background of when this first match, this first Ashes match was played. The decade that Britain gains control of the Suez Canal, accesses Upper Burma, scrambles for Africa, consolidates its control in India after the mutiny.

7:39And thanks to the most powerful navy the world has ever seen, it has established trade routes to India, China and Africa. And so you could say that the British Empire's muscle at this time is at full flex. All children know the words of Royal Britannia and they sing it and they mean it. And in comparison, William, where's Australia? It's still a federation of colonies like the sort of pre-revolutionary America, isn't it? So Australia becomes a country in 1901. So the fact you have an Australian national team playing before they're a country with a coat of arms, it's actually very important in the development of a sense of nationhood.

8:13Yeah, it is growing biceps though, Australia as well. It's fair to say at this time, even though it's not sort of one nation. Gold has been discovered in New South Wales and Victoria. It's soon going to be discovered in Western Australia too. And so this massive economic boom is beginning. By the 1880s, half of the white population lives in towns, making it more urbanised, I couldn't believe this, than the UK at the time. And you've got settlements expanding into Northern Australia. and of course, you know, to the detriment of the indigenous population there. But let's go back to that 1861 before the first official ashes.

8:52You know, when the English go over to their colony, how are they welcomed? You know, with jubilation, are people saying, oh God, they reckon themselves? I mean, how does that all work out at the time? No, they're warmly welcomed. Then of course, a huge amount of Australian people at the time, their first or second generation English is seen as a way of binding Australia to the mother country. The tour is run for profit. It's a privately run tour. And the players are paid really, really well. The players earn over a million pounds in today's money from that tour, which is incredible. The crowds are huge because it takes six weeks to get there.

9:24They're there for a long, long time and they're playing all the time. So when people say, you know, money is ruining sport, well, money has always been the driver of sport. And that was true from the 1860s. So how does the idea of international matches between these, well, Australia as a team now, even though there isn't a country called Australia, and Britain begin? When does that kick off? The idea of a test match is originally like a marketing slogan. It's used by marketeers to pump up these matches. So often you get multiple private tours from English teams to Australia at the same time, which are all for profit.

9:57And they are very much playing on these national allegiances. The patriotic element, that tribal element, you get these tours from Australia to England. And the first, what is thought of as the first test match is 1877 at Melbourne, when England lose for the first time of many to Australia. So that's interesting. So they lose in Australia, but then they come to England in what we now think of as the first Ashes Test match, although nothing's been burnt at this point. And that's 1882, as you mentioned before. And what surprised me, Tim, is that it doesn't take place at Lords, you know, the home of cricket.

10:32It takes place at the Oval. Now, I love the Oval. I think the Oval is actually my favourite ground in the country. Second, maybe Edgbaston, third, probably Lords, just for atmosphere and enthusiasm. And explain to those of us that aren't following this quite as closely, I mean, both of these are big, massive, famous cricket grounds. Why would you expect it to be one rather than the other? So, Lords is in Marleyboone, St. Johnswood is in a very, very money part of London. It's bursting with history, not just the ground itself, but the areas around. The Oval is called the People's Ground of London, which of course, these differences are a bit embellished, but the gasworks actually just speaking distance from the ground and stuff.

11:12more egalitarian feel to that ground, basically. So they're five miles away. Obviously, they like to drum up the contrast between each other. I mean, in short, it was sort of deemed to be the working class stadium, if you like. So would the Aussies have been considered that they were being given the second division place by being sent off to the Oval? I don't think so. I think these tours have such a kind of ad hoc feel. They would have played at Laws as well in that tour. So it wouldn't really have that sense. it would just have a sense of it's Tuesday, we're playing here. They're playing six, seven days a week, every week.

11:45This is how you make money from these tours. We should say, very interesting captains. And if you see sort of pictures of them. Good moustaches. Good moustaches. I mean, very strong face furniture. In fact, the best moustaches we've had on this show since the Sykes-Picot agreement. Yes, you could say. So what I love is that they both sort of have these wonderful sort of nicknames. So it's William Billy Murdoch, who's the Australian captain. I checked this straight out when I saw this and he is no relation to Rupert Murdoch. The Rupert Murdoch Murdochs were still in Scotland at this point. Fine, okay.

12:20And for the England team, you had Albert Nielsen Monkey Hornby. And I sort of looked it up. Why did they call him Monkey? It's because he was incredibly agile. He's there, he's everywhere, he's left, he's right. And so they just, they called him Monkey. And that's how, you know, he sort of became cemented in the minds and hearts of the public. We should go into the moustaches in more detail, though, because this is something we take seriously on this podcast. And Billy Murdoch has a kind of long pair of rather sort of droopy moustaches that go down to his jowls, while Monkey has a kind of more sort of Hitlerian short and abbreviated moustache.

12:59So I think the Australians win on the whiskers. Yeah. What was the mood like at the Oval when this match was even announced? I mean, there must have been bookmakers thronging to the area. So the game was 28th and 29th of August. It's really, really cold, actually. Very cold, very cloudy. So not very Australian condition. Should have been Englandfield at home. 20 ,000 spectators in the ground. They pay a shilling each. Is that a kind of record audience or not? I think at the time, yeah, it's a huge audience. We should say there's two innings a side each, which means Australia gets a bat, then England bat, then Australia bat, then England bat.

13:34And the game sets up with England needing 85 to win in the fourth inning of the match, which should be very, very easy. The bookmakers in the crowd, they offer 60 to 1 of chance of Australia getting a win. England are hugely, hugely favoured. But we talked about moustaches earlier. So Fred Spother, the Australian body, he has one of them. We have a third moustache coming into there. Exactly, yes. It's a great moustache, actually. It is an all-time classic moustache. It has waxed ending the moustaches we're about to introduce. Yes, go on. Tell us who the moustachioed boy wonder is in this match, who turns everything upside down.

14:07So Fred's bowled out. I think he's called the demon both for his cricket ability and his moustache ability. He has this mad kind of determination. So he says, this thing can be done. He shouts to his teammates in the dressing room. They're very forlorn thinking they're going to get to a comfortable victory. And he basically just bowls. So you have a bowler from each end and he just bowls the whole time from one end. And he is basically saying, I'm not going to stop bowling until we've won this match. So he's this mad determination. He's a fast bowler, but not as fast as you get today. But he's got all these variations.

14:38He's learned things from baseball, actually. So he spins the ball in all these clever, deceptive ways. It's getting very tense. They're scoring very, very slowly. There's a man who actually basically has a heart attack and dies in the crowd. Because it's so stressful. That's hilarious. I mean, not hilarious for his family, of course. Did I hear about one man chewing through his umbrella as well? That was in one of the press reports that it was so stressful. He chewed through his umbrella in the crowd. Yeah. And then one of the England batsmen who's so nervous, he's about to bat and he's drinking champagne, but not in anticipation of victory, but out of to kind of quench his nerves.

15:12England are sort of petrified. So at one point they score one run in 17 overs, which is just incredibly slow. So England are absolutely overtaken by fear. So it's a bit of a train crash in slow motion, really. England are just incapable of doing anything. And then it just gets far too much for England. So they collapse and they're 51 for two. So they are absolutely cruising. And then suddenly they're 66 for five. And then they keep on losing these wickets. And at 75 for nine, the last man comes out. His lips are said to be grey in trepidation of having to bat. So, you know, sort of grey-lipped and tense.

15:46And I mean, champagne, you've mentioned champagne. So we can't mention champagne and not mention England's superstar, WG Grace, who's so kind of entangled in that champagne lifestyle. Amazing Grace, this hugely bearded, giant Hagrid of a man. Just tell us a little bit about him and give us his origin story, Tim. Yeah, he's kind of a cartoon character of a man almost. Again, we talked about this, he's got this amazing beard, the bearded one he's got. So he's born into a family of doctors in Gloucestershire. His family all play cricket as well. Kind of reinvents the game in terms of as a batsman, in terms of where he's hitting the ball.

16:23He's also, his force of personality is legendary. So, you know, there's a story once in a match, he's bowled out and then he just acts as if nothing happens and he just puts the stumps back down and carries on and he tells the umpire, they come to watch me back, not you umpire. And he's right because actually the entrance fee for matches is three or four times more when he's playing. He's fully aware of his kind of financial worth. He gets a testimony organized by the Telegraph, actually my newspaper now, he gets£5 ,000 through that, which is half a million pounds in today's money. He's also famously, Tim, isn't he the face of Coleman's mustard, no less?

17:00He's already getting sponsorship from Coleman's at this point. Yeah, I mean, he is very opportunistic. And the great kind of funny thing is he is known as an amateur. And by that, I mean, there is a strange dividing between amateur players and professionals. So professionals are people who are just paid a salary to play. And then there's so-called amateurs who are unpaid, basically, from the upper classes. But they get these expenses. And of course, his expenses are worth far, far, far more than he would get as a professional. So it's a complete farce. So when he tours to Australia on occasions, as an amateur, he earns 10 times more what the professionals actually earn, but he's still classed as an amateur.

17:37Does he have champagne brought out to the crease and things like that? I mean, in my mind, I've got all of these images of these gentlemen, England players who sort of live an entirely different life to the life of people like Fred Spofforth and others who come from Australia. I mean, is that the case or is that just a caricature of the time? Well, he's odd because he, although he's this caricature, he also, he's actually very, in a sense, professional. He trains very hard. He always tries to get to the place where he's playing the day before a match and everything. So he's got this odd mix of, yeah, he's so determined to win, which not all amateurs are, but also he'll cheat happily and he'll do everything to pay what he thinks he's worth as well.

18:17And he's known. In this match, 1882, he has a fight with Spothoth. He claims he's run out on an Australian player. Australians think this is an act of cheating, basically. And so Spothoth, you know, the moustache Spothoth, he calls Grace a bloody cheat. And he then channels that anger into winning that match at the Oval in 1882. So, OK, I mean, this is a match that I actually really wish I'd been at because it sounds like it has everything in it. The nail biting that goes on from the England Appreciation Club, it doesn't get any better, does it? What happens at the end? I mean, how close to the wire does it get?

18:51So the last, yeah, the last wicket falls. The penultimate wicket, 75 for nine. England need 85 to win. The last man, you know, fresh from his champagne while he's been waiting, he scores two, but then from his third ball, he's clean bowled. Australia win by seven runs. England lost the last eight wickets for 26 runs, which is really terrible. and one of the first great traditions of Test cricket is born, which is the England batting collapse. Do you know, people are going to be really smart from hearing that, Tim, and we're going to get letters. But how does, you know, the English press treat this?

19:22Because they can't really have imagined this could happen on English soil. This must be kind of a bonkers day for them. No, it's seen as a complete disaster, basically, and a kind of attack on national pride and the sense that England has invented cricket and they're already being beaten at it and being beaten at home, which also, you know, which stings a lot more. The best reaction, the most notorious reaction is in the Sporting Times newspaper where the following day, Reginald Shirley Brooks, he writes a mock obituary, which says,

20:04RIP and B. And then the final line, the body will be cremated and the ashes taken to Australia. And so this is the idea of the ashes. The urn is born. We're going to take a break in a moment. But on the issue of was it the balls or the bales, where do you, Tim Wigmore, stand? Because it actually went online and I kind of wish I hadn't because I got into terrible heated discussions. I witnessed about whether it was the balls or the bales that were burned and put into this tiny urn. What was it, do you think, in your research? Bales is what I think it is. Bales is what you're going for. Okay, we have an answer.

20:39Join us after the break when we find out how England intends to avenge this disaster.

20:55Welcome back. So before the break, the bales, and we have it, it's official, the bales were burnt. Tim Wigmore says so. And they were put into a tiny urn. And it is up to one man to avenge the English. And his name is Ivo Bly, the England captain. Now, tell us about Captain Ivo Bly, because he also, he looks like he should be captaining the Titanic. There's a lot of, and we've gone on about face furniture, but he has some very fine moustache and beard action. I think it looks like Kenneth Branagh. He's definitely got those sort of officer class sort of moustaches. as a vaguely even regal look to his facial furniture.

21:32Yes. So, I mean, a toff? Absolutely. As you would expect from the 8th Earl of Darnley, no less. So, yeah, he's born Lord of the Manor of Coburn. Very, very privileged upbringing. He goes to Eton and Trinity College in Cambridge. My old college. He is just the sort of person who tends to captain England, actually, not just in this era, but for a long time afterwards. Though, disappointingly, and I checked this, just like Murdoch isn't a relation to Murdoch, Darnley isn't a relation to Mary Queen of Scots it's Darnley Can I just say this is a turn for the Empire podcast where we just go through lists of people that have nothing to do with the person we're talking about I don't need to film hours of broadcasting with this So look, it's Ivo Bly's job to avenge the English embarrassment England leave only 12 days after losing the Ashes which does show the hype of commercialisation of cricket in the era is just one huge tour after the next His vow is to quote, beard the kangaroo in his den and try to recover those ashes.

22:32Brilliant. Those are his KPIs, basically. The tour couldn't go any better for him because not only does he win the ashes, there's a function where a Melbourne lady congratulates him and she is called Florence and then they become husband and wife. So he leaves with the ashes and a new wife to be. Oh, right. Nice for him. But you touched on something really interesting. and I just want to maybe explore it a bit more. He was very much tough. He was to the Man of Bourne, Blue Blood, all of that stuff. You said the captains were always like that. What about the teams themselves? Because the Australians weren't like that.

23:10I mean, they sort of harvested the best players that they could. Could the same be said about the England side? Where did they get their players from? There's a great divide really in how the teams are built. We talked about in England how the amateur and professional divide and eng would generally have three or four if not a few more players who are amateur and the amateur would basically always be the captain so between 1887 and 1952 every person to captain england is an amateur and they even go through they go through different gates at grounds they have different changing rooms they get far far far more in expenses so there's an absolute class divide that runs through how eng and build their team australia everyone is basically semi-professional.

23:54I mean, they are just playing for money. They often have different jobs because they need to do things in between these big tours. But there is not the same obsession with status. An umpire in the 1890s who umpires a lot of Ashes tests, he basically says the difference is the Australian captain, he'll consult his whole team. The captain will treat his players as if they are dogs. He'll only consult one or two people who they consider to be of the appropriate, basically, social class. And that quote, I mean, treat them like dogs. That comes from, I think, an Australian player called Joe Darling, who saw the way in which captains were speaking to their team.