Original Ashes Urn travels in style for rare visit to Australia

The original Ashes urn is in Australia for the first time in more than a decade.

The celebrated cricket urn travelled in style — it had its own business class seat for the journey!

It’s only the third time in history the urn has been displayed in Australia.

Marylebone Cricket Club’s Curator of Collections, Neil Robertson, said loaning the urn abroad is a rare occurrence.

“We’re putting a lot of trust in the library by allowing them to display the Ashes urn, but that trust is well-founded,” he said.

Mr Robertson also shared the story of how the Ashes came to exist.

“The Ashes really began as a joke,” he said.

“When England was first defeated by an Australian team on English soil in 1882 there was a spoof obituary placed in a paper called The Sporting Times … that declared the death of English cricket, and said the body would be cremated and the ashes taken to Australia.

“It was a joke that caught on.”

The Ashes urn is on display at the State Library of Victoria until February 23.

Press PLAY below for more.

Image: Shaun Curry/ Stringer