The Ashes urn, which was reportedly too fragile to survive a trip Down Under, is to be sent on a tour of Australia next season, according to MCC's president, Sir Tim Rice. There have been growing calls for the urn's return to Australia since their completion of a record-breaking eighth consecutive Ashes victory, and MCC have finally bowed to the pressure. The urn is scheduled for intricate repair work over the next few months, and is likely to be displayed in Melbourne and Sydney in 2003-04, before returning to Lord's.

"Speaking for MCC, we are very keen that the Ashes should be displayed in Australia," Rice told BBC Radio Five Live. "I have great sympathy for the view of many of Australia's cricketing and political intelligentsia. We were hoping to take them out this year, but they are in a very fragile condition. Insurers and British Museum experts advised us that they shouldn't go at the moment. So we have had to postpone it, but it has been there before and I hope very much it will go out there again."

The legend of the Ashes came to being in 1882, following Australia's unexpected seven-run victory at The Oval. A tongue-in-cheek obituary was published in the Sporting Times, which read: "The body will be cremated and taken back to Australia." The following winter, England's captain, Ivo Bligh, was presented with the urn – containing the ashes of a stump, a bail or possibly a lady's veil – on completion of a series victory.

The urn was bequeathed to MCC in 1927 by Bligh's Australian-born widow Florence, later Lady Darnley. It has remained there almost ever since, and in recent seasons England and Australia have competed for a Waterford crystal replica trophy.

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