'There’s Plenty Of Petrol Still In The Tank', Says Berry After Lyon’s Entry To 500 Test Wickets Club
In the first Test at Perth against Pakistan, Lyon, who made his Test debut in 2011, became the third Australian and eighth bowler overall to take more than 500 Test wickets. As South Australia head coach, Berry was the person who spotted Lyon when the off-spinner was a member of the ground staff at Adelaide Oval.
"I was sitting there last night thinking, ‘Wow, that kid that was rolling the wickets (is now here)’. The story is not just because it was Nathan Lyon and I was the coach. It was an opportunity, all I provided was an opportunity for this kid and he's taken it and run with it.
"I remember sitting with him before he went to Sri Lanka for his first Test. He was so nervous, he didn't think he was up to it. But he goes over there and he gets Kumar Sangakkara with his first wicket and then it just took off like a steam train and here we are 12 years later.
"I’m sitting there yesterday thinking, ‘This kid's taken 500 test wickets. He’s at Australian legendary status’. It goes Warne, McGrath, Lyon … and I still think there’s plenty of petrol still in the tank," said Berry to SEN Radio.
On his first spotting of Lyon, Berry said he was told by former Australia batter Callum Ferguson, who played against Lyon in grade cricket, that he should have a look at the kid, ‘on the roller’, which prompted him to get the off-spinner bowl in a centre wicket practice.
"I was lucky enough to be in the position to be coaching South Australia (in T20 cricket). We were training at Park 25 that's been redeveloped in Adelaide to Karen Rolton Oval, and Nathan Lyon was a groundsman as many people know at the Adelaide Oval.
"He'd come down from Canberra, he was a country boy from Young in New South Wales and I think it was Callum Ferguson … he said to me, ‘That kid on the roller is a pretty good off-spinner, Chuck, you should have a look at him’.
"So I called him over and he was a very shy kid, Nathan, and that probably hasn't changed all that much. He said, ‘Oh no, I’ve got to roll the wicket’. I said, ‘Come and have a bowl with us mate’, we were doing a centre wicket practice.”
"Long story short, I convinced him to have a bowl, and without being silly about it, he bowled about three or four balls, and the fizz on the ball that came out of his fingers … it was like, I hadn't seen an off-spinner do that."
Berry went on to explain how he felt Lyon was special. "I've been lucky enough to keep to Shane (Warner) who fizzed it like no other. But for an off-spinner to do it, it's very different.
"A wrist spinner can flick it and get real zip on the ball. An off-spinner generally rolls the ball out. They're boring, they bowl ‘door knobs’ and everyone bowls them in the park. But this was special. It went up and over, it fizzed and it hung in the air and it dropped. Straight away I thought, ‘This is special’."
Berry then called SA director of cricket Jamie Cox where he pleaded for Lyon to be picked up in the state side. “I said, ‘Mate, there's a kid down here, I want to pick him’. Jamie said, ‘Darren, he's not even in the state squad mate, he’s playing at Prospect, we can't pick him’.
"I said, ‘You need to come down here’. Jamie came down and to his credit, he supported me as the new coach, we went out on a bit of a limb and we plucked him and we put him into the T20 team. It was the year before the Big Bash started. He played his first game against New South Wales … that's how it started, it was strange."