South Africa's teams are becoming cricket's Hotel California. As in you can check out any time you like, but you can never leave. Not forever, anyway.

Quinton de Kock came in from more than 15 months in the international cold in October, two months before Dane van Niekerk ended her absence of more than four years. On Tuesday, 37-year-old Shabnim Ismail returned.

"Hi, guess who's back," Ismail said playfully, then laughed, at the start of an audio file CSA released after announcing the squad for the T20 World Cup in England next month.

Ismail walked away from the international game after the 2023 version of the same tournament, when South Africa reached the final - which they lost to Australia. Fast bowling is short on romanticism, but Ismail wouldn't be human if she didn't see poetry in the fact that her first game back could be in South Africa's World Cup opener against the Aussies at Old Trafford on June 13.

Should she be in that XI - it's difficult to see why she wouldn't be - she will have spent three years, three months and 17 days not being an international player. She has used the time well: since her retirement no-one has played more games and bowled more balls than Ismail in the game's major T20 franchise competitions, in India, England, Australia and the Caribbean. Better yet, no seamer has taken more wickets.

Probably, no-one has brought more attitude onto those far flung fields. Because that's the real value of players like Ismail. It's in the strut, the glare, and the epithets. South Africa get this precious stuff from Marizanne Kapp, but its edge is dulled if it leaks out at the other end of the pitch. Bringing Ismail back should stop that from happening.

"I believe in myself and Marizanne Kapp," Ismail said. "I don't think that's arrogance. I think it's confidence because we've played over a hundred games together and done well as a bowling pair."

Of Ismail's 240 white-ball internationals, Kapp played in 176. That's a shade less than three-quarters, which was also how many of Ismail's wickets were taken when Kapp was in the side. They were a formidable pair. And, if the plan comes together, they will be again.

What made Ismail change her mind?

"It was a long, hard decision. I always say I have morals and values and I think a lot of people know once I'm done, I'm done.

"But I had nice conversations with family, with Trish [Chetty]; people who are close to my heart. And then coach Mandla [Mashimbyi] as well. When the news came out about him waiting for that phone call from Shabnim Ismail, that topped it off.

"We had back and forth conversations, but there was a point where he gave me a call and said, 'Take your time to make the decision. I'm not forcing you to play, but I really need and want you to come back and help us win the World Cup.'

"He also mentioned that we are missing the pace element. Not that I'm going to be the magic stick, but I'm hoping that when we get to the World Cup I can try and make a difference or try and help the youngsters with my skill and my seniority.

"I don't actually think the team needs me. I think they've been doing phenomenally well. I mean, they've been making final after final."

Besides the decider Ismail played in, South Africa reached the 2024 T20 World Cup and last year's ODI World Cup finals. Thing is, they lost all of them. What's that about?

"I don't think it's about skill," Ismail said. "For me, it's the mental part of knowing how we are going to overcome that last hurdle. If we win the World Cup and come home really happy, I'll just say happy retirement."

Ismail bowed out in the last stages of Hilton Moreeng's more than 11 years as South Africa's coach. Moreeng was an admired figure, but his players wanted change so much towards the end of his tenure that they wrote to CSA to ask them to find a replacement. Thus much of the credit for Ismail reversing her decision likely belongs to Mashimbyi, who was appointed in November 2024.

"It was a no-brainer to try and get one of the best bowlers in the world playing for South Africa again," Mashimbyi told a press conference on Tuesday. "Whatever happened in the past happened. I came here with a clean slate and I want to achieve great things with this team.

"For that to happen you need to have the best people available. Shabnim is one of them. It was important for me to have a chat with her because we couldn't have a player of her calibre sitting at home and watching us play. We need that X-factor and she has it.

"She's a strong character. She's a fighter. She brings more to the team than skill, and this is probably the addition we need to make sure that we're going to fight all the way."

There will be no dark desert highways at the T20 World Cup, and whatever happens it will not be heaven and it will not be hell. But some will dance to remember and some will dance to forget. Welcome to South Africa's Hotel California.