Cricket-Tiny urn at heart of rivalry proves main attraction

By Catherine Millar

LONDON, July 10 (Reuters Life!) - A tiny terracotta urn at the heart of a 127-year-old rivalry between England and Australia is the main attraction in an exhibition at the home of cricket.

Not even the guardians of the Ashes at the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) museum are exactly certain what is in the urn given to England cricket captain Ivo Bligh by his future wife while on a playing tour of Australia in 1883.

What they are sure about is that the brown-coloured urn, slightly bigger than an egg cup, is not the trophy England are attempting to win back from Australia this year in the test series that is held every two years.

Museum manager Antony Amos said that contrary to popular belief the Ashes urn is not a trophy, but a piece of cricketing history donated to the MCC by Bligh's widow.

"People think it's a trophy, but it's not," Amos told Reuters. "It's just a symbol."

The museum also holds the much bigger urn-shaped Waterford Crystal trophy, which was commissioned by the MCC as the official Ashes trophy after discussions with the England & Wales Cricket Board (ECB) and Cricket Australia.

That trophy was first presented to Mark Taylor after his Australian side emerged triumphant in the 1998-99 Test series against England.