Canberra: When Michael Hussey retired all those years ago in January 2013, Australia went looking for its new songmaster — the man who would rouse the players with a rendition of the team’s victory song, Under the Southern Cross I Stand, and they eventually settled on Nathan Lyon. Not because he was the best singer but simply because few others wore their hearts on their sleeve in quite the same way.

Lyon was different and that’s not just because he was an off-spinner. Australia has had a great tradition of spinners — from Clarrie Grimmet, the first bowler to claim 200 Test wickets, to Richie Benaud, a man everyone recognises as the voice of cricket but a great leader and spinner in his time, and finally, the great Shane Warne. They were all wrist-spinners. Not finger spinners.

But Lyon, well, he always wanted to do it his own way and if it meant getting up in the cold, wintery mornings in Canberra to do his part-time job or work on the farm then so be it. The 37-year-old has now played 130 Tests and claimed a remarkable 532 wickets.

Young is a small town roughly a two-hour, 160km drive from Canberra, and to most people outside the cricketing world, it is known for its cherry crops. From November to January, you can pick your own cherries from trees. Surrounded by orchards, olive groves and vineyards in the cool climate of the Hilltops wine region — this is quaint as quaint goes. Go back a little further in time and the town’s colourful, pioneering gold history comes into picture.

But come back to the cricketing world and the town will forever be associated with Lyon, a bowler who has charted a very unconventional route to bring his legend to life. Even now, more than anything else, it is his resilience that sets him apart. Put him in a tough spot and he’ll go about his business without a word.

Brendan Lyon, Nathan’s elder brother and a cricket coach who runs an academy in Sydney, remembers the grind of the early days and feels that may have helped mould his brother into the man he is.

“We didn’t own a farm, we grew up working on one with our dad,” said Brendan in a chat with Hindustan Times. “I guess sport’s been in our family and but respecting opponents has always been massive from our parents or from our grandparents. We came from a big family — my dad is the oldest of nine, so there’s a lot of aunties and uncles. And you always had to be nice to them, for family came first.”

His first proper tryst with competitive cricket was not in his backyard though. Pub owners Garry and Marie Cummins had a team called the Young Hotel and both the Lyon brothers turned up for it. Since there weren’t too many spinners in the line-up, Nathan saw the chance and took it. That was when the world got the first glimpse of the competitiveness that makes him special. It’s understated but it’s there — all the time.

“Marie used to run the team and I recall the boys being super serious about their cricket,” said Garry. “One particular game stands out for me — it was against the Services Club Dragons team and that outfit was made up of some older kids. But Nathan, who was a thin, scrawny fellow then, had a particularly good game against them; and at some point after the game he signed off on the notice board as ‘The Dragon Killer’.”

“He was very determined in everything he did and was clearly going to be a very good cricketer. I’ll tell you he wanted to be different, he didn’t want to be one of the normal blokes.”

The Cummins’ only discovered the notice board while they were renovating the place and Marie cut off the part and saved it as a memory of when Australia’s greatest off-spinner would strut his stuff out in Young. It was perhaps the moment when Nathan’s belief in his own talent achieved a certain critical point. Now, he could really start dreaming.

Nathan was soon off to Canberra, playing for the youth teams — ACT Cricket’s under-17s and under-18s representative teams. But the ‘Dragon Killer’ had his sights set way higher. He had the loop, he had the heart and could beat batters in flight, but needed to add a little more fizz to his deliveries.

“I put down a lot of his resilience to the work that we did with that on the farms because, you know, it’s not easy with the heat and the dust and the flies. I came down to Canberra for University and Nathan followed me, and I think he was on five dollars an hour there… working on the ground and, you know, he used to eat plenty of cheap chicken schnitzels. That’s what he sort of lived off and I think that just set him up,” said Brendan.

One thing led to another and his work as a curator took him from Canberra to the Adelaide Oval. Playing for South Australia started getting him noticed and soon he was being talked about as a candidate for the national squad.

And after just four first-class matches, he was called up for a Test tour of Sri Lanka where he ended up taking the wicket of Kumar Sangakkara with his first ball.

“We didn’t have the money to travel overseas,” said Brendan. “Nathan’s first overseas trip was his first Test. Our parents took us everywhere, and we drove big distances, I guess.”

The early tough upbringing gave Lyon a unique perspective and his appreciation of the privilege that playing for Australia accords went a long way in helping him become the bowler he is today.

“Nathan’s biggest key in the past has been his drift and bounce but he also compliments some very, very good fast bowling line-ups,” said Brendan, who is three years older.

Even after all these years, in his heart of hearts, Nathan still remains the same kid who’ll put cricket before, family aside, everything else.

“We recently travelled out for our uncle’s funeral and the drive was five-and-a-half hours each way and he drove the whole way — for the respect of our family but also because he had to train the next morning.

“So, he takes it very, very seriously and he lives in a different world to what most people do. But in the end, he’s still the same old little brother and I’m supremely proud of what he’s achieved. Hopefully, he’s still a little bit more left in the tank.”

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