Yes, this is the macabre backstory to world sport’s most prized 10.5cm piece of terracotta.
In the 1880s, cremation was illegal in Britain, and most other places. Aside from organised religion frowning on a dead body being treated in such a way, authorities were a little concerned cremation could be used to cover up crime. Amazing how easily one could get away with murder when a victim is reduced to ashes.
A paper published by a surgeon on the issue began a movement that picked up various followers, including English journalist Reginald Shirley Brooks.Brooks was the man who wrote the mock obituary in the Sporting Times that lamented England’s defeat to Australia at The Oval in 1882 and created a legend.
“In Affectionate Remembrance of English Cricket which died at the Oval on 29th August, 1882, Deeply lamented by a large circle of sorrowing friends and acquaintances. R.I.P. N.B. — The body will be cremated and the ashes taken to Australia,” wrote Brooks.
While the obituary was written in jest, it was also Brooks’ attempt to get the issue of cremation on people’s minds.
It worked. By 1902 cremation finally became law.
As most know, England captain Ivo Bligh was presented with a terracotta urn on the tour of Australia in 1882-83 said to contain the remains of English cricket. It was really just a burnt bail but was kept by Bligh until his death, before it was used as the symbol of Anglo-Australian rivalry.
That urn is back in Australia for only the third time in its history, wrested from his regular home at the Lord’s Museum. It is on display at the State Library of Victoria until February 23.
Flat out promoting
As a brand ambassador, Steve Smith makes a pretty good master batsman. Because Australia’s best-known insomniac is the face of … a mattress manufacturer. Just take a look at the giant logo on the back of his bat.
Given he rates the product so highly, perhaps Smith should persuade Cricket Australia to arrange for the team’s hotels to stock only his personal brand. Because Cricinfo has crunched the numbers to suggest Smith’s lack of sleep is harming his output.
His average plummets the further into a Test match he goes, presumably as his sleep levels drop off.
Smith’s first innings average is 94 as he starts a game fresh as a daisy. It drops to 63 when he bats in the second innings of a game, and 52 in the third.
When Australia bat in the fourth innings his average is a very average 31.
“I know that he is working with people at Cricket Australia and elsewhere on trying to find a better night’s sleep,” Tim Paine says. “It is not a great endorsement for his Koala mattress company but, yeah, he is working on trying to get better at that and trying to relax a bit more between games.”
Weight of numbers
David Warner is 75kg. Marcus Harris is about the same. Put them together and you get West Indies spin bowler Rahkeem Cornwall.
On a good day Cornwall is 140kg, after an indulgent holiday it’s likely he’s around 150kg. But there’s one thing the 6’ 5” (196cm) Antiguan has done that neither Warner or Harris can claim — he’s taken a Test seven-fah.
Cornwall, 26, is the heaviest Test cricketer in history but this week he ensured he’ll be known for more than his girth. Figures of 7-75 playing against Afghanistan in Lucknow, India, this week in just his second Test place him 23rd on the list of best single innings returns for a West Indies bowler and the best by a Windies spinner in five decades.
Cornwall beats even Australia’s own heavyweight champion, Warwick Armstrong. “The Big Ship” weighed 133kg, stood 6’ 3 (191cm), bowled slowly (of course) and had best Test bowling figures of 6-35.
Izzy captain material?
Did it seem odd to anyone else that Israel Folau claimed this week he’d been denied a future as Wallabies captain?
Folau upped his legal fight against Rugby Australia to the tune of $14m, claiming if he hadn’t been wrongfully dismissed he’d have gone on to captain Australia.
The bloke’s an outside back! You know, one those types who kicks the ball away after the forwards have done all the hard work getting it in the first place. He’s a glory hound, a pointy head, more likely to catch a cold on the sideline that actually catch the ball.
So how does Folau think he could be captain? That’s an honour bestowed on forwards. Occasionally a particularly chirpy halfback (eg. Nick Farr-Jones, George Gregan or Will Genia) a cool-headed five-eighth (Mark Ella or Michael Lynagh) or a statesmanlike centre (Andrew Slack, Tim Horan or Stirling Mortlock) might be handed the skipper’s job. But once the numbers on the jumpers head north of 13, forget it.
Right? Wrong!
There haven’t been many, but there is some precedent for fullbacks to captain the Wallabies.
Our very first Test captain, Frank Row, played fullback for NSW but was selected in the centres for Australia in 1899, leading for three Tests before Bob McCowan, a fullback, took over for one Test.
Larry Dwyer led the side from fullback once in 1913. It was 20 years before another fullback, Alex Ross, was handed the reins for three games and another 28 until Jim Lenehan captained the side for a game in 1962.
Queensland great Paul McLean led the side from fullback in 1980 in a one-off experiment and that was it.
Wingers? Wouldn’t feed ’em, let alone make ’em the boss. Unless you’re Stan Wickham, the Wallabies’ third captain who played on the wing twice while skippering the team in 1904.
Johnnie Wallace, like Wickham, swapped between wing and centre but was the boss for four Tests as a winger in 1927-28.
No wingers since then have captained the side, and no fullbacks since 1980. And Izzy, who has never captained anything in a career that has spanned three different football codes, didn’t seem like the guy who was going to break that drought.
mcloughlins@theaustralian.com.au
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Would cricket’s most famous trophy, the Ashes urn, ever have existed if not for the campaign to get cremation legalised in the UK?