Australia’s spy: Lyon brushes off Warne-style retirement

As Nathan Lyon refuses to follow Shane Warne with an Ashes farewell in Sydney two summers from now, the veteran spinner has become an information source for Australia as Test series against India and England loom.

Cricket Australia chairman and former NSW Premier Mike Baird announced promotional agreements with all five mainland states on Sunday, saying they would raise tens of millions of dollars for community cricket.

Speaking at the SCG after the announcement of a seven-year agreement between the NSW Government and Cricket Australia to jointly promote and enhance the Sydney Test, Lyon shot down the prospect of emulating Warne and having a swansong in the final Test of the 2025-26 Ashes summer.

The deal also ensures the Sydney Test will remain in its now-traditional timeslot in early January.

Warne quit Test cricket at the SCG in January 2007, aged 37 with 708 wickets from 145 Tests. Lyon has 530 wickets in 129 Tests.

“It’s too early,” Lyon, 36, said on Sunday of retirement talk.

Premier Chris Minns with former premier and Cricket Australia chairman Mike Baird and Australian cricketers Nathan Lyon and Josh Hazlewood at the SCG on Sunday.Credit: Edwina Pickles

Instead, Lyon has been gathering information on this summer’s opponent India, and the Ashes a year later, during a five-month stint in England playing county cricket for Lancashire.

The sojourn has left him amused by England’s strong Ashes focus 18 months out from the series.

“I thoroughly enjoyed my time in England being inside the Lancs change room, listening to guys talk about the Ashes, talk about the way they’re planning, the way they’re going to approach winning out here,” Lyon said.

England captain Ben Stokes made it clear last month that team changes for a series against the West Indies were in preparation for their 2025-26 tour of Australia. Seamer Jimmy Anderson was given one last Test, Jonny Bairstow was dropped and spinner Jack Leach ignored.

Australian Test spinner Nathan Lyon.Credit: Getty

“Look at where we’ve got to go in 18 months’ time, to Australia. We want to win that urn back,” Stokes said in July, conscious England have been thrashed in their last three visits, losing 13 of 15 Tests without winning a single one.

Lyon shared the Lancashire dressing room with England spinner Tom Hartley, taking mental notes of the tall left armer’s experience of playing five Tests as a surprise selection in England’s tour of India earlier this year.

“I had some really good chats with Tom Hartley about different ways that he went about it to different guys, which I found quite interesting,” Lyon said.

“If the plans that we’ve spoken about come true I think it will be interesting.”

Tom Hartley celebrates after taking a five-wicket haul in India.Credit: Getty

Lyon identified India’s rising star Yashasvi Jaiswal as the latest danger the Australians will be forced to encounter. The 22-year-old opening batsman averages 68 after nine Tests, with three centuries, including 209 against England.

“India seem to have the ability to grab someone out of nowhere, and they become an absolute superstar,” Lyon said. “You look at this Jaiswal. I haven’t come across him yet, but that’s going to be a massive challenge for all us bowlers.

“The way he played in the recent Test series against England in India, I watched that quite closely, and I thought that was quite amazing.”

Sunday’s announcement regarding Test cricket included news of the Victorian and South Australian state governments also signing seven-year agreements with Cricket Australia. The West Australian government signed a three-year deal and Queensland for two years.

There is increasing uncertainty about the future of the Gabba because of the 2032 Brisbane Olympics, with Queensland Cricket announcing on Sunday that it would not host a Test during the 2026-27 season, and Baird saying the stadium would “come to the end of its useful life” in 2030.

The highlight of Sunday’s announcement was the 150-year anniversary Test between Australia and England at the MCG during March 2027, a one-off celebration of the first Test played in March 1877. It follows the 1977 Centenary Test at the MCG.

NSW Premier Chris Minns said his government would use this summer’s Sydney Test to attract more visitors from India, which now provides the largest annual migrant intake to Australia.

“In the last 12 months, we’ve had about half a billion dollars spent on the tourism sector from tourists from India,” Minns said.

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