ONLY four and a half inches high, the Ashes are as small as they are significant. But then the laurel wreaths awarded at the first Olympics were not coveted for their size or material content so much as for their honour alone.
Since 1927 the Ashes have been housed at Lord's in their terracotta urn. Before then they belonged to Lord Darnley who, as Ivo Bligh, had led the 1882-83 team to Australia and was there presented with a burnt stump or bail by some local women, one of whom - a piano teacher - did it so coquettishly she became Bligh's wife.
The present curator of the Lord's museum, Stephen Green, has never lifted the lid to see what the urn contains as it is far too fragile. When it was sent to Australia for their bicentenary, some Aborigines claimed the Ashes were those of their ancestor Dick-a-Dick, who had toured England in 1868 with the first of all Australian cricket teams; but cremation in Australia was illegal then. All we know is that when Green's predecessor, Diana Rait-Kerr, looked inside a generation ago, she saw an ash-like substance consistent with burnt wood.
No one yet knows what the 59th contest for the Ashes will contain. But if a soothsayer were to sift through the contents of the urn and try to read them, he or she would surely predict that England will do better, much better, than in any Ashes series since 1986-87; that if they start well, England could even share it; but that they will not regain the Ashes because Australia will come back strongly enough in the second half of the summer.
The momentum is now with England as they have planned and prepared as they have not done since Mike Brearley and Ray Illingworth were captains, while Australia have gone in circles around Mark Taylor. England's selectors have middle-aged ears to the ground, and the players are fresh - fresher at any rate than when they tour Australia - and public opinion shares the confidence they won in the Texaco series. Perhaps, above all, England's players appreciate the board changes which have rid them of administrators who would make Blackadder's General Melchett look caring, sensible and enlightened.
So England have to make it count by winning at least one Test in the first half of this summer, when a long-range forecast anticipates wet weather and when pitches will be less favourable for batting. In Australia there are said to be cricket-watchers who would now switch off their televisions once they see that the ball is bouncing truly, not seaming or spinning extravagantly, knowing their team will win. Dating back to the start of the last Ashes series, Australia have played 11 Tests with match aggregates over 1,000 runs - in other words, on batting pitches - and won nine of them, and drawn another.
When match aggregates have been below 1,000, Australia have fallen so far from their pedestal that they lose as many as they win: of 13 such Tests they have won six and lost six. Most of their batsmen are exposed as ``flat track bullies''. On poor pitches ordinary seamers and spinners can match Glenn McGrath and Shane Warne.
The sort of pitches England want should be apparent - and this is a six-Test series unfortunately. Australia are highly dependent on McGrath and Jason Gillespie, who is developing the saturnine look of Spofforth and Lillee. If they contemplate the rest of Australia's seam attack at night, England's batsmen will not need sedation. England have an abundant supply of experienced seamers should Devon Malcolm and Darren Gough break down.
But the big 'but' is that while England's graph is climbing and Australia's slumping they have started wide apart. England are currently bracketed with Sri Lanka, above New Zealand and Zimbabwe, and a long way behind the major powers of whom Australia come first.
England have made recent gains in stability, and in fielding, and in Gough's ability to knock over tiresome tails with reverse-swing; and the recall of Malcolm, consistent in his balance and control as never before, will give them the strike bowler that Dominic Cork aspired to be. England might even be confident enough now to graduate from that defensive frame of mind which focuses on doing everything to avoid defeat to the Australian state of mind which aims from the start to win and only goes for a draw when that is impossible.
Against that England still lack a left-handed opening batsman of proven technique. Nick Knight has been missing straight balls by bringing his bat down in a semi-circular arc, and if McGrath could work out Brian Lara, he should be able to crack that one. If Knight is chosen today for the first Test, which starts at Edgbaston on Thursday, it will be because of his fielding and good-eggery and because Mark Butcher has seized up at the prospect of a Test debut at the deepest end.
He allies England's one main weakness which, as it occurs at the top of their order, could have the same effect as the weakest link in a chain. As Warne remarked in Gower's Cricket Monthly, ``the first day of the first Test is crucial'', and the most important part is usually the duel between the opening batsmen and opening bowlers. Australia have easily won these duels in the last four Ashes series and gone on to win. Not since 1986-87 at Brisbane have England won, when Bill Athey hung on and Australia's seamers sprayed.
Rather than a bowling all-rounder like Mark Ealham, England in their final team will have to pick Adam Hollioake as batting insurance cover for Knight. To what will be a larger England party than usual to allow for all the possibilities at Edgbaston, Phil Tufnell will be added as a second spinner. Whatever this series holds, though, it will be fascinating to peek inside and see.
A second spinner, Phil Tufnell or Ashley Giles, will be selected, if not to play, leaving No 7 as the other vexed question. England will need batting insurance to cover for Knight or Butcher, and a capable fourth seamer too. Is Adam Hollioake the latter, or Ealham more than a one-day bowler? Chris Lewis was the match-winner at Edgbaston last year. Even Ben Hollioake, or Graham Rose, the in-form all-rounder? The urn is about to yield its first secret.
Ashes tests at Edgbaston
Played: 9.
England won three; four drawn; Australia two. Highest total Australia: 516-9 dec (1961). Lowest: 36 (1902). England: 595-5 dec (1985). Lowest: 101 (1902). Highest individual scores Australia: 157 D M Jones (1989). England: 215 D I Gower (1985). Best match bowling Australia: 8-101 T M Alderman (1981). England: 11-102 C Blythe (1909).