Ashes urn stays at Lord's
Steve Waugh holds a replica of the Ashes urn
The England and Wales Cricket Board has dismissed suggestions that Australia should be allowed to take the original Ashes trophy home at the end of their current tour.
The Ashes urn is permanently housed in the museum at Lord's, but Steve Waugh believes the trophy should now be handed over into Australian care.
"We have won the series, and I think we should get the Ashes. That is my personal point of view," he said.
"I think we should get the Ashes - the original. You are playing for the trophy, so why not get it?
"It is the ultimate prize in cricket, they say. But you cannot get near it. It is not much of a prize really if you cannot see it or cannot touch it."
The Ashes urn was presented to then England captain, the Honourable Ivo Bligh, during the 1882-83 tour of Australia.
The previous summer, the Sporting Times published an obituary notice for English cricket following the team's defeat at The Oval.
It concluded with the words: "The boyd will be cremated and the ashes taken to Australia."
But, the story goes, after Bligh's side beat Australia 2-1, a group of ladies from Melbourne burned a straw bail and put the ashes in a small urn, which they gave to him.
ECB chief executive Tim Lamb said there was no question of the Ashes being allowed to leave Lord's.
"There have been a number of replicas which have been used over the years, but the MCC would never let the original out. It is in the museum at Lord's and it stays there.
"The Australian Cricket Board realise that if anything happened to it, then it would be gone forever," he added.
Australia will receive a crystal replica of the Ashes following the final Test at The Oval.
It was designed in 1998 and accepted by the ACB, according to Lamb, as a "permanent trophy" for series between the two sides.
Waugh, meanwhile, has still not given up all hope of playing in the final Test, despite tearing his calf muscle in two places during the Trent Bridge Test.
He plans to receive treatment for the next week to 10 days and then decide whether there is any point in him staying on in England.
"If I was staying here, it would have to have a purpose. You have to be fair to the new captain and give him some space," Waugh added.
Australian physio Errol Alcott believes such injuries normally take four to six weeks to heal.