The

England cricket team The England cricket team represents England and Wales in international cricket. Since 1997, it has been governed by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB), having been previously governed by Marylebone Cricket Club (the MCC) since 1903. Engl ...

toured Australia in 1928–29. England, known as the MCC in matches outside the Tests, retained

The Ashes The Ashes is a Test cricket series played between England and Australia. The term originated in a satirical obituary published in a British newspaper, '' The Sporting Times'', immediately after Australia's 1882 victory at The Oval, its first ...

, winning the first four Tests and losing the last for a 4–1 series victory. Writing in the 1930 ''Wisden'', SJ Southerton wrote:

England were stronger in batting, more reliable and consistent in bowling and very definitely superior in fielding.

The series was defined by the prodigious runscoring of Wally Hammond, playing his maiden Ashes series, who with a run of scores of 251 at Sydney, 200 and 32 at Melbourne, and 119 not out and 177 at Adelaide, scored a then-record series aggregate of 905 runs at an average of 113.12; the record has only been surpassed once, by Donald Bradman in the 1930 Ashes. In the fifth Test, England's Jack Hobbs became the oldest player to score a Test century, at the age of 46 years and 82 days, a record that still stands.

The MCC team

The MCC touring party was: * Percy Chapman (

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

) (captain) *

Jack White John Anthony White (; born July 9, 1975), commonly known as Jack White, is an American musician, best known as the lead singer and guitarist of the duo the White Stripes. White has enjoyed consistent critical and popular success and is widely c ...

(

Somerset ( en, All The People of Somerset) , locator_map = , coordinates = , region = South West England , established_date = Ancient , established_by = , preceded_by = , origin = , lord_lieutenant_office =Lord Lieutenant of Somerset , lord_ ...

) (vice-captain) *

Douglas Jardine Douglas Robert Jardine ( 1900 – 1958) was an English cricketer who played 22 Test matches for England, captaining the side in 15 of those matches between 1931 and 1934. A right-handed batsman, he is best known for captaining the English ...

( Surrey) * Jack Hobbs (Surrey) * Herbert Sutcliffe (

Yorkshire Yorkshire ( ; abbreviated Yorks), formally known as the County of York, is a historic county in northern England and by far the largest in the United Kingdom. Because of its large area in comparison with other English counties, functions have ...

) * Wally Hammond (

Gloucestershire Gloucestershire ( abbreviated Glos) is a county in South West England. The county comprises part of the Cotswold Hills, part of the flat fertile valley of the River Severn and the entire Forest of Dean. The county town is the city of Gl ...

) *

Patsy Hendren Elias Henry Hendren (5 February 1889 – 4 October 1962), known as Patsy Hendren, was an English first-class cricketer, active 1907 to 1937, who played for Middlesex and England. He also had a concurrent career as a footballer and had a long te ...

(

Middlesex Middlesex (; abbreviation: Middx) is a historic county in southeast England. Its area is almost entirely within the wider urbanised area of London and mostly within the ceremonial county of Greater London, with small sections in neighbour ...

) *

Ernest Tyldesley George Ernest Tyldesley (5 February 1889 – 5 May 1962) was an English cricketer. The younger brother of Johnny Tyldesley and the leading batsman for Lancashire. He remains Lancashire's most prolific run-getter of all time, and is one of only ...

(

Lancashire Lancashire ( , ; abbreviated Lancs) is the name of a historic county, ceremonial county, and non-metropolitan county in North West England. The boundaries of these three areas differ significantly. The non-metropolitan county of Lancash ...

) * Phil Mead (

Hampshire Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in western South East England on the coast of the English Channel. Home to two major English cities on its south coast, Southampton and Portsmouth, Hampshire ...

) *

Maurice Leyland Maurice Leyland (20 July 1900 – 1 January 1967) was an English international cricketer who played 41 Test matches between 1928 and 1938. In first-class cricket, he represented Yorkshire County Cricket Club between 1920 and 1946, scoring ove ...

(Yorkshire) * Maurice Tate ( Sussex) *

George Geary George Geary (9 July 1893 – 6 March 1981) was a first-class cricketer who played for Leicestershire County Cricket Club and the England cricket team. Abilities Above medium pace and right-handed, Geary was able to swing the new ball very e ...

( Leicestershire) * George Duckworth (Lancashire) (

wicketkeeper The wicket-keeper in the sport of cricket is the player on the fielding (cricket), fielding side who stands behind the wicket or stumps being watchful of the batsman and ready to take a Caught, catch, Stumped, stump the batsman out and run out ...

) *

Les Ames Leslie Ethelbert George Ames (3 December 1905 – 27 February 1990) was a wicket-keeper and batsman for the England cricket team and Kent County Cricket Club. In his obituary, ''Wisden'' described him as the greatest wicket-keeper-batsman of ...

(Kent) (wicketkeeper) * Harold Larwood (

Nottinghamshire Nottinghamshire (; abbreviated Notts.) is a landlocked county in the East Midlands region of England, bordering South Yorkshire to the north-west, Lincolnshire to the east, Leicestershire to the south, and Derbyshire to the west. The trad ...

) * "Tich" Freeman (Kent) * Sam Staples (Nottinghamshire)

Tests

First Test

*''2 December was taken as a rest day.''

Second Test

*''16 December was taken as a rest day.''

Third Test

*''30 December was taken as a rest day.'' *''This Test match still holds the record for the highest match aggregate (1497) without a

no-ball In cricket, a no-ball is a type of illegal delivery to a batter (the other type being a wide). It is also a type of extra, being the run awarded to the batting team as a consequence of the illegal delivery. For most cricket games, especially ...

extra.''

Fourth Test

*''3 February was taken as a rest day.''

Fifth Test

*''10 March was taken as a rest day.''

Ceylon

The English team had a stopover in

Colombo Colombo ( ; si, කොළඹ, translit=Koḷam̆ba, ; ta, கொழும்பு, translit=Koḻumpu, ) is the executive and judicial capital and largest city of Sri Lanka by population. According to the Brookings Institution, Colombo m ...

''en route'' to Australia and played a one-day single-innings match there against the Ceylon national team, which at that time did not have Test status.