Ashes urn heads down under

The Ashes © Getty Images

The original Ashes urn, just four inches tall but a priceless artefact to any cricket lover, will leave its home in the Lord's museum on Sunday to begin a three-month, 26,000-mile tour to Australia.

No expense is being spared. Special insurance has been taken out, the urn will have its very own business-class seat on Virgin Atlantic and it will be accompanied by three MCC staff on its voyage down under.

The MCC's Ashes Exhibition, in association with Travelex, will take the urn to seven Australian cities to coincide with the Test series.

But any hopes Glenn McGrath and other Australians have of keeping it, should they beat England this winter, were dashed by MCC chief executive Keith Bradshaw.

"This has been discussed many times but the Ashes urn is not a trophy - it is representative of the contest between the two nations," he said.

"I expect to get some press over there if Australia win but the Ashes are definitely coming home."

The three-month long Ashes Exhibition is launched at Lord's

The history of the urn dates back to 1882 and England's first defeat to Australia, at The Oval.

The Sporting Times newspaper published a mock obituary which stated that English cricket had died and "the body will be cremated and the ashes taken to Australia".

On the subsequent 1882-83 tour - dubbed "the quest to regain the Ashes of English cricket" - England captain Ivo Bligh was presented with the urn, which is said to contain the ashes of a burned set of bails, by Florence Morphy.

The two later married and on Bligh's death the urn was bequeathed to the MCC, who have looked after it ever since.

The urn did travel to Australia in 1988 for the Bicentennial Test but is leaving these shores for only the second time.

The Ashes exhibition tour, in association with Travelex, came about following requests from Cricket Australia, and the urn will be accompanied by 30 other artefacts, including the scorebook, scorecard and hand-written team list from The Oval match in 1882.

MCC curator Adam Chadwick will never be far from the urn

Plans to take the urn down under in 2002 were postponed after small cracks were discovered in it.

Bradshaw continued: "We have left no stone unturned and will use the highest levels of security possible. It is a priceless object."

For insurance reasons the urn has been valued as a seven-figure sum and it will be accompanied on its trip by Lord's curator Adam Chadwick, who will be virtually handcuffed to the bullet-proof case.

He confirmed that the Ashes' true home will always be Lord's, the home of cricket.

Chadwick explained: "I am expecting a warm reception because it is fantastic that it is going out there.

"There are one or two people who want it to stay and don't see why we should keep it all the time.

"But that comes with not knowing the true story and true history. It was a gift, a symbol of rivalry but also of friendship.

"Having given it to us, it would be wrong to ask for it back."