Australian cricket champ Nathan Lyon passes ‘songmaster’ baton to Alex carey

The 37-year-old has written a letter explaining the reasons behind his decision.

Legendary spinner Nathan Lyon has called time ... not on his career, but on his role as the Australian ‘songmaster’.

The songmaster is a time-honoured position within the team, and decides where and when the victory song will be sung after a Test victory.

As it is widely known, the Australian team sings Under the Southern Cross after a win, and Lyon has been in charge of leading the song on 67 occasions after Mike Hussey handed him songmaster duties 12 years ago.

Now, Lyon has revealed his time is done and Alex Carey is taking over, while insisting this is not the first step to retirement.

“I’ve been very honoured to firstly, lead the song, but to have it for 12 years, it’s been one of the biggest highlights of my career,” he said.

“It definitely doesn’t mean I’m retiring anytime soon.

“It’s more about the team environment, making sure that I get the opportunity to pass it on to someone who I look at and absolutely love in the way he goes about it on and off the field and I just feel like Alex is the perfect candidate.

“I ran my race with it, and it’s time for someone else to put their touch on it.”

Lyon said he believed Carey — who was the stand-in songmaster in 2023 when Lyon was injured during the Ashes — was the ideal candidate.

And Carey will follow in the footsteps of other champion wicket-keepers and spiritual leaders such as Rod Marsh and Ian Healy.

Greats such as Allan Border, Ricky Ponting, and Justin Langer have also held the role.

Lyon explained the handover process, which is now becoming a type of ritual ... and how Hussey had passed on the appointment to him 12 years ago.

“I went up to his room on the second night (of the first Test against West Indies),” he said.

“I wrote him a little hand(written) letter … and spoke to him about the reasons why I’ve come to the decision.

“He was pretty taken aback by it, but it was pretty cool little moment.”

As the team headed to Grenada for the second Test (starting at 12am on Friday AEST), Lyon stressed retirement was a long way off and there were bucket-list items he still wanted to tick off.

“I’ve always said I want to win away in India. I want to win away in England,” Lyon said.

“We’ve got that opportunity in a couple of years’ time, but we’ve also got to take it Test by Test and make sure that we’re doing everything here in West Indies right.

“Then we’ve got a massive summer at home with the Ashes.

“But another World Test Championship final would be on my cards for sure.”