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Marsh tempted to call on Mitch

National selector admits he was tempted to talk Mitchell Johnson out of retirement but thought better of it

Australia’s chairman of selectors Rod Marsh has admitted he fleetingly thought about contacting recently retired quick Mitchell Johnson to gauge if he might return to the Test team to cover the loss of another front line fast bowler.

Johnson announced before the end of the second Test against New Zealand in Perth last month that he was walking away from all forms of international cricket because he had lost his passion and hunger for the game. 

WATCH: Johnson's raw goodbye 

But when Johnson’s former new-ball partner Mitchell Starc broke down with a stress fracture in his right foot after bowling just nine overs in the subsequent Test in Adelaide last week, Marsh contemplated picking up the phone to check if Johnson might make himself available.

The prospect of coaxing Johnson from his fortnight-old retirement was given extra appeal by the knowledge he would have provided like-for-like cover for his fellow left-armer Starc.

And that he would scarcely have lost any of his legendary match fitness in those couple of weeks as an ex-cricketer.

But the call was never placed, and the selectors instead have turned to James Pattinson, uncapped WA seamer Nathan Coulter-Nile and Victorian bolter Scott Boland (on standby) for the first Commonwealth Bank Test against the West Indies that starts in Hobart on Thursday week.

"No … I thought about it," Marsh said today when asked if he had made contact with 34-year-old Johnson to gauge his availability for the remaining three Tests of the current summer, which Starc will miss through injury.

"You’ve got to respect a bloke when he retires, you can’t … gee.

"There’s a reason he (Johnson) retired and that’s because he didn’t want to play any more, so you don’t go there.

"It would have been nice but, wouldn’t it?"

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Marsh and Johnson in 2014 // Getty Images

Cricket has hosted some famous cases of players who have walked away from the game, only to return to the fray in response to extreme circumstances and a desperate plea for their experience and acumen.

None more famous than former England captain Colin Cowdrey who, at the age of 42 and having quit Test cricket more than three years earlier, was hauled from the depths of an English winter to face the fury of Dennis Lillee and Jeff Thomson on a frighteningly fast WACA pitch in 1974.

Cowdrey was summoned after a number of touring top-order batsmen were injured or traumatised by the Australian pair’s bouncer barrage, and installed at number three in the batting order despite barely having time for a practice net session to re-acquaint himself with the game.

Then there was the unique case of former Australia skipper Bob Simpson who was also in his 42nd year when he was coaxed out of retirement to lead a greenhorn Test team formed in the wake of the defection of most of the nation’s best players to World Series Cricket in 1977.

Simpson had not played a Test match for a decade when he turned out for the home series against India in which he scored two centuries.

But he found his return much tougher in the following four-Test series against legendary West Indies fast bowlers Andy Roberts, Colin Croft and Joel Garner in the Caribbean, after which he returned to retirement and numerous successful coaching stints.

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Roberts, Holding, Croft and Garner // Getty Images

However, given the unforgiving nature of their craft there are very few tales of fast bowlers coming back from retirement although some – including Johnson’s mentor and close friend Lillee – have returned after extended stints on the sidelines due to injury.

Johnson has indicated that he will explore options to continue playing in the KFC Big Bash League as well as the lucrative Indian Premier League, but has shown no inclination to reconsider his decision to hang up the Baggy Green Cap.

Even if the chairman of selectors was to make that call.