The name comes from a small pot ( known as an `` urn '' ) of ashes , which was made and presented to a former England captain in 1882 , following a joke printed in The Sporting Times , an English newspaper , in 1882 : Australia beat England in a series and someone placed an advert in the pages of the paper , describing how English cricket had died and its body had been cremated . The series is named after a satirical obituary published in a British newspaper , The Sporting Times , in 1882 after a match at The Oval in which Australia beat England on an English ground for the first time . The obituary stated that English cricket had died , and the body will be cremated and the ashes taken to Australia .