St John’s, An­tigua – All-rounder De­an­dra Dot­tin on Sat­ur­day an­nounced her re­turn to in­ter­na­tion­al crick­et as abrupt­ly as she an­nounced her re­tire­ment two years ago.

In a joint state­ment re­leased by Crick­et West In­dies, the 33-year-old Bar­ba­di­an said she had come to the de­ci­sion fol­low­ing “a pe­ri­od of re­flec­tion and thought­ful di­a­logue”, in­clud­ing with CWI pres­i­dent Dr Kishore Shal­low.

“Rep­re­sent­ing West In­dies in in­ter­na­tion­al crick­et has al­ways been a mat­ter of great pride and pas­sion for me,” Dot­tin said.

“Af­ter a pe­ri­od of re­flec­tion and thought­ful di­a­logue with var­i­ous par­ties with­in Crick­et West In­dies, in­clud­ing Crick­et West In­dies Pres­i­dent, Dr Kishore Shal­low, I am pleased to in­form you that I am ea­ger to re­turn to the game that I love, and con­tribute my ut­most to the West In­dies women’s team across all for­mats, with im­me­di­ate ef­fect.”

She con­tin­ued: “I am con­fi­dent that my ex­pe­ri­ence, ma­tu­ri­ty, and skills will add val­ue to the team as it has done in the past, and I am pre­pared to fur­nish my best ef­forts in every match and train­ing ses­sion to en­sure the team’s win­ning tra­jec­to­ry in in­ter­na­tion­al crick­et.

“More­over, I am en­thu­si­as­tic about men­tor­ing younger play­ers and con­tribut­ing to the over­all de­vel­op­ment of women’s crick­et in our re­gion.”

Al­most ex­act­ly two years ago, Dot­tin sud­den­ly quit in­ter­na­tion­al crick­et, point­ing to “the cur­rent cli­mate and team en­vi­ron­ment” as be­ing “non-con­ducive to my abil­i­ty to thrive and reignite my pas­sion.”

Dot­tin, one of the world’s lead­ing play­ers at the time, said she had come to the de­ci­sion “with much sad­ness but with­out re­gret”, af­ter re­al­is­ing she was no longer able to “ad­here to team cul­ture and team en­vi­ron­ment as it has un­der­mined my abil­i­ty to per­form ex­cel­lent­ly.”

She is one of the sec­ond most ex­pe­ri­enced West In­dies Women’s play­er with a com­bined 270 white-ball games – on­ly be­hind for­mer cap­tain Stafanie Tay­lor.

An ag­gres­sive top and mid­dle or­der bats­man, Dot­tin has plun­dered 3 727 runs in One-Day In­ter­na­tion­als with three hun­dreds and an av­er­age of 30, and has belt­ed two hun­dreds in T20 In­ter­na­tion­als in gath­er­ing 2 697 runs.

A sharp medi­um pac­er, Dot­tin has tak­en 134 wick­ets across both white-ball for­mats.

“De­an­dra is a play­er of im­mense abil­i­ty and ex­pe­ri­ence,” said CWI Di­rec­tor of Crick­et, Miles Bas­combe.

“We are pleased with her de­ci­sion to re­turn to in­ter­na­tion­al crick­et and be el­i­gi­ble for se­lec­tion. There is no doubt that she could add sig­nif­i­cant val­ue to the West In­dies Women’s teams.”

West In­dies’ next as­sign­ment is the Twen­ty20 World Cup in Bangladesh in Oc­to­ber.

Dot­tin has not played com­pet­i­tive crick­et in al­most a year, her last stint com­ing when she led Trin­ba­go Knight Rid­ers in last sea­son’s Women’s Caribbean Pre­mier League.

CMC