DERBY DAYS - THE ASHES:Often petty, rarely warm or gracious, it doesn't quite fit that the rivalry's most important representation in sport is through the gentleman's game of cricket.

AFTER THE Beijing Olympic Games, an English tabloid commissioned billboards that boasted of Britain's 19 gold medals, compared with Australia's 14. "Where the bloody hell were you?" screamed the message.

An Australian newspaper immediately took up the challenge and, pointing out that six of Britain's haul came from Scottish and Welsh competitors, produced their own giant billboards for the streets of Sydney. "Where the bloody hell were we? Australia 14 England 13. Above you on the medal tally."

It's a relationship based on regularly attempting to prove one side's superiority. A rivalry usually surrounded by jokes about Pommies and Aussies. Often petty, rarely warm or gracious, it perhaps doesn't quite fit that the rivalry's most important representation in sport is through cricket.

And Ireland cannot divorce itself from the series completely.

Several Irish men have participated in the conflicts, though perhaps the most important symbol of Ireland's relationship with the Ashes is that, for the past decade, a Waterford Crystal representation of the Ashes urn has been the official trophy of each series.

Curiously, the tiny Ashes urn was never adopted as the official trophy. The term dates from England's pitiful collapse at The Oval in 1882, after which the Sporting Times famously printed a mock obituary for English cricket, stating that the ashes would be taken to Australia.

A still smarting England followed later that same year and "regained the ashes", and, when, the Australians returned to European shores in 1884, Dubliner Timothy O'Brien played for the home side in the first Test, a draw at Old Trafford.

O'Brien also has the distinction of captaining Ireland - once recording 167 for the country of his birth against Oxford University - and returned to play for England at Lord's in 1888, a match Australia won by 61 runs.

In fact, O'Brien wasn't the first Irishman to represent England against their distant rival - nor even the first to play for both Ireland and England. Leland Hone was in the touring party in the 1870s, and the Dublin-born wicketkeeper had a role in England's victory in the 1879 Test at Melbourne.

That was, though, before the first official Ashes series in 1882. Ifact, it took another 20 years for the term to be the accepted description of the now regular England-Australia cricket battles.

By the 20th century, avenging the original 1882 humiliation, regularly, had became a passion for England cricketers.

The stakes had risen, and when in August, 1902 - the 20th anniversary of the Ashes - Australia wrapped up their fourth series victory in a row even before the fifth Test at The Oval, the home loss provoked furious criticism of the England side.

On the morning after the fifth Test, The Irish Times reported: "England won the fifth and final Test match at Kensington Oval yesterday by the narrow margin of one wicket, and thereby to some extent regained her lost prestige. At Manchester (in the fourth Test), the first innings left matters fairly even, and when the Australians were all out for 95 in their second innings, and England had scored 68 for two wickets and only needed 56 for victory, with eight wickets to fall, it looked 'all over but shouting'. But the rest of the team were afflicted with a bad attack of 'nerves' and some of them, as in 1882, were out before they went to the wickets."

By then, England also had another regular member of the team drawn from across the Irish Sea. In fact, Frederick Fane would captain England for the first three Tests in Australia in 1907-08.

Born at the Curragh Camp, Fane would hold the distinction of being the only Irish-born player to score an international century for England until, a century later, Ed Joyce would record 107 against Australia in a one-day international in Sydney.

Two years ago, after years of arriving in Australia with the same credentials as their compatriots did hundreds of years earlier - a criminal record - England landed with high hopes of retaining their title and recording a first series victory on Australian soil since 1987.

But England were whitewashed, losing the series 5-0 - an incredible capitulation by the visiting side considering England had snatched the coveted Ashes just 15 months earlier.

Despite not playing in any of the Tests, Joyce's performance in the one-day international ended the lingering controversy over his tour selection. In any case, his inclusion didn't cause anything like the consternation the decision by England selectors to call up Martin McCague for Australia's visit in 1993 did.

It wasn't that McCague was born in Larne that caused uproar, but that he had grown up in Australia. In a series based around getting one up on the other, McCague didn't quite fit the accepted profile of a passionate, patriotic Englishman.

At the time, the London Independent commented: "McCague is a product of the Australian Cricket Academy, has played representative cricket for Australia at Under-19 level, and qualifies for England by having spent the first of his 24 years in Northern Ireland. He is about as English as Rolf Harris."

After the humiliation of 2007, the build-up to this year's series has been cautious in England.

That said, some ex-players and commentators, such as Ian Botham, have not been able to stop themselves from getting carried away by the chance that the best of England - such as Andrew Strauss, Kevin Pietersen and Andrew Flintoff - can upset the team of Ricky Ponting, Mitchell Johnson and Brett Lee.

While Australia are firm favourites, the only certainty is that, come the end of the 65th edition of cricket's oldest and most enduring rivalry, one side will be proclaiming victory from the rooftops - and quite possibly from a few billboards too.

England v Australia

First Test (Today-Sunday) ... Swalec Stadium, Cardiff

Second Test (July 16th-20th) ... Lord's, London

Third Test (July 30th-Aug 3rd) ... Edgbaston, Birmingham

Fourth Test (Aug 7th-11th) ... Headingley, Leeds

Fifth Test (Aug 20th-24th) ... The Oval, London

Each Test will be shown live on Sky Sports