London: Legendary England all-rounder Ian Botham is campaigning for the original Ashes urn to remain in Australia to promote the sport, but its owners the Marylebone Cricket Club does not seem to be impressed with the proposal.

With the urn currently on a rare tour of Australia, Botham, former Australian captain Allan Border and Sir Richard Branson, chairman of Virgin Atlantic, which flew out the Ashes, want the Aussies to keep the original since they have also won the series.

``This is only promoting the game. The reaction over here (to the Ashes exhibitions) has been amazing. It will create more interest and, I hope, get more people playing cricket,'' Botham said.

``This (debate) has been going on for as long as I can remember why should the Ashes stay in England and it's a fair point,'' he was quoted as saying by a website.

``You're playing for the Ashes, and to me it seems a little bit ridiculous. If you're playing for the Ryder Cup or the European Cup then you get the cup.

``I just think that Australia deserve it. If you're playing for the Ashes, the winners should hold the Ashes and that, to me, is what it's all about,'' he said.

Billionaire entrepreneur Branson said he would like to fly back the urn with pride when England wins it back.

``Ian and I were talking the other night and as two Englishmen, we basically just said that it seems wrong that the Ashes should be going back to the UK when England had just lost the series.''

Proud moment

``Australia should be proud to have won the Ashes and they should keep them until we can win them back again and as the airline that actually sponsored bringing the Ashes down, I also feel uncomfortable about the idea of actually flying the Ashes back to England,'' Branson said.

``What we'd like to say is we'd like to start a campaign to keep the Ashes in the rightful place they should be, and if England one day win the Ashes back then we'll be proud to fly the Ashes back to England.''

But MCC in a statement has made it clear that the original Ashes were a private gift and did not mean to exchange hands.

``As the tens of thousands of visitors to the MCC Travelex Ashes Exhibition now know, the urn was never intended to be the trophy for the cricket series, and has never changed hands between the two countries,'' the statement said.

It is only the third time the Ashes have left the MCC's headquarters at Lord's since 1927, having been displayed in London's Victoria and Albert Museum in the 1970s and in Australia in 1988 to mark the country's bicentenary.

The urn is scheduled to return to England on January 16, and Branson insists his airline will stick to the arrangement should the MCC not agree to his proposal. — PTI

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