How Lyon 'curated' a fine cricket career

Adelaide: There’s an hour to go before the start of the third day’s play of the pink-ball Test and head curator Damian Hough is desperately hoping for India, overnight 128/5 in the second innings and still 29 runs adrift of of Australia’s first-innings total of 337, to put up a fight with the bat and somehow take the game into fourth day.

Hough has worked hard on the pitch to ensure a fair battle between bat and ball, and he doesn’t want the Test to end this early.

As a parent of the pitch, he agrees, it’s frustrating to see matches end early. “Yeah, you want Test cricket going to go for five days, or late on day four. But again, the players play the game,” he resigns.

The clock is ticking, the start is fast approaching and his ground staff is anxiously waiting for him, but Hough is willing to continue chatting because he is talking about one of his favourite persons. Nathan Lyon.

Lyon’s is one of the most incredible sporting stories. A countryside boy from New South Wales, who started as an assistant to Hough at the Adelaide Oval, going onto emerge an all-time great. He cut the outfield, watered the grass and rolled the pitches before becoming the most prolific finger spinner from Australia, having taken 532 wickets in 131 Tests.

Lyon, who was second in-charge at the Manuka Oval in Canberra, moved to Adelaide for better opportunities in 2010. Hough hired him as his first assistant and put him in-charge of Karen Rolton ground, a smaller ground which hosts first-class matches.

How did he balance his work and cricket? Were there times he just skipped the work?

“Nah, nah, he was so professional,” Hough cuts you short. “I knew he played cricket but I didn’t know how good he was. When he was at work, he looked after that ground on his own. So he worked really hard down there (Karen Rolton), and then he would come in here. If he wasn’t the main cricketer, he’d come in here on days. So he cut the outfield for the Ashes in that 2010 season. That was his role, cutting the outfield and being part of the ground staff and doing all that. So, but yes, ultra professional and hard working.”

Doing the curator’s job and playing cricket meant Lyon had little turnaround time.  

“He actually didn’t get picked in our Second XI team, so that’s how far down, how far back he had come from,” Hough says. “So he would actually go and play for Canberra in Futures League, so it was like a second-level competition. So he would leave on a Sunday, play from Monday to Thursday (for Canberra) and then he’d fly back Friday morning, straight into the game. And then, if he had to work on Sunday, he’d work Sunday. He was always playing week in, week out.” 

Two days before the pink-ball Test, Lyon addressed the media. He is a South Australian icon now, a popular face used for social causes. 

“I love Adelaide,” proclaims Lyon. “It’s my favourite venue. Obviously got that connection here well before Test cricket became a reality for myself. So I love playing cricket here.” 

Did Hough ever think his former assistant would reach such high levels, from preparing wickets to taking so many wickets?

“Not to this level,” Hough is quick to reply. “I think it’s one of the all-time great stories in the world. One of the all-time great cricket stories. He has followed his dream of playing cricket and curating... Came to South Australia for an opportunity and without any promise to play for the state and he’s had to work extremely hard to get an opportunity outside of the normal ways of doing it and has stayed really humble and down to earth and has gone on and become one of all-time greats of the game. So I think it’s an amazing story, one of the all time great stories in world cricket,” Hough gushes.

Few would disagree. 

Nathan Lyon