Cricket's Ashes trophy exists because of a sarcastic newspaper obituary written in 1882.

After Australia beat England on English soil for the first time in 1882, a British newspaper, The Sporting Times, published a mock obituary announcing the death of English cricket, joking that “the body will be cremated and the ashes taken to Australia.” The phrase caught on, and when an English team toured Australia the following winter, the contest between the two countries became known as the quest to “regain the Ashes.”

A small terracotta urn, reportedly containing the burnt remains of a cricket bail, was presented to the English captain during that tour and has become the symbolic trophy of the England-versus-Australia Test cricket rivalry ever since. The actual urn is considered too fragile to travel and stays at the Marylebone Cricket Club’s museum in London regardless of which team wins, with the touring teams instead awarded a replica or a separate trophy.