All zinked up, marvellous mo, a bit heavier than when he was in his prime, but the great man was still an Australian hero and the marquee man for the Canberra Comets.

Then there was young gun Brad Haddin, a brash Queanbeyan junior ready to take the cricket world by storm.

It's been 14 years of waiting, wondering and hoping, but the Comets are (almost) back – sans big Merv, of course.

It's easy to get caught up in the romance of a sporting comeback, be it a legend coming out of retirement or a defunct team being revived after more than a decade.

Anyone in Canberra sport remembers the Comets, the Cannons and the Cosmos. Everyone in Canberra wants a cricket team, an NBL side and an A-League franchise.

But sometimes nostalgia gets in the way of reality. And while the Cannons' return to the NBL has been all but squashed because of cash and the FFA refuses to recognise Canberra, the Comets are a reality.

Former Test wicketkeeper and ex-Comets captain-coach Mike Veletta said it was "narrow-minded" of Cricket Australia to expel Canberra from the competition in 2000.

When officials gave the reason that the Canberra cricket team was "too ambitious", it's hard to argue with him.

Veletta also backed Cricket ACT and Country Cricket NSW's joint bid for re-entry in the domestic one-day competition from next year, adamant the team will discover another Haddin-esque player.

As part of the new plan, Canberra would be the base for players from outside of Sydney, drawing on talent from Wollongong, Newcastle and Wagga to add strength to the program.

The proposal will be put to the Cricket Australia board in Melbourne on September 17-18. So will it work?

"Merv coming on board was very handy for us at the start and it was narrow-minded that they kicked us out," Veletta said.

"It was absolutely worth the investment back in 1997 and the Comets were working to become something special.

"The catchment area that the ACT can service [is huge]. I would have thought they would have seen the bigger picture. But there were only a handful of people on the board that saw that, and they've lost 15 years of development."

If your memory doesn't stretch back far enough to recall the Comets' demise, here's a brief recap.

Eight-Test player Veletta was recruited to lead the Comets as captain-coach. He joined Western Creek to help build up the local competition and moved to Canberra two years before the Comets joined the domestic one-day competition.

He was with the team for two years, was joined by Haddin, Hughes and some of Canberra's best talent before he retired.

In March 2000, the then Australian Cricket Board axed the Comets. Why? ACB chairman Dennis Rogers waited four months to tell Canberra officials on July 25, 2000: "They certainly were ambitious. I put that as bluntly as I could, because it is a fair thing to put, and I think they could have been a bit less ambitious.

"We found that they were a sleeping giant and we were not ready for another team in the Pura Cup.

"We're not ready for allocating Test matches to Canberra and we're not ready for one-day internationals to be played in Canberra, so it was a matter of, when we did the review, how can you be half-in and half-out?

"The best way forward is for the ACTCA to participate in the ACB Cup and still participate in the under-19 and under-17 carnivals, and at the same time, sit on our subcommittees and play the historical role they have played."

Imagine that. Axed for being too ambitious.

Cricket ACT has rebuilt and is now in a strong position to return to national level.

Manuka Oval has been revamped and is one of the best grounds in the country – A fact acknowledged by Cricket Australia's decision for Australia to play South Africa in November, the Big Bash League final to be at Manuka Oval and World Cup games.

Cricket is one of the only sports that has opted against expansion in recent years.

Despite the introduction of the Twenty20 Big Bash, domestic teams have remained the same.

The simple fact is there are eight Big Bash teams, but only six states that offer a chance to play in the domestic one-day competition or Sheffield Shield.

That means there are players good enough for the Big Bash, but they're crying out for a chance at other formats. That's where the Comets can excel.

Not to mention Test spinner Nathan Lyon, Ryan Carters (NSW), Jason Behrendorff (Western Australia), Jason Floros (Queensland), Aaron Ayre (Victoria), Will Sheridan (Melbourne Renegades), John Rogers (Western Australia), Alex Ross (South Australia) and Nick Winter (South Australia).

They're all Canberra products who are either established or on the fringes in first-class cricket.

The finances for the Comets' return are yet to be finalised. But one official said it would be "naive" to think that the one-day side would be made up solely of players from Canberra.

Instead, the Comets will target the best and offer fringe players a chance to shine at Manuka Oval.

The new one-day domestic format also helps, with the competition being condensed to be complete after just a month of action in September and October.

Other sports have struggled to finance bigger competitions. Basketball has failed to grow the NBL. New teams come in and then they go broke.

A group of officials were trying to bid for a licence to revive the Cannons. But it hit a major hurdle when the NBL cut financial support and introduced a $1 million licence fee.

The A-League was a rotating door for new franchises which continually went bust and it's understood three clubs are battling to stay afloat.

"The whole mentality of being in a first-class set-up was something Cricket ACT had never been involved in before," Veletta said.

"The bigger picture of what I imagined happening in Canberra is exactly what's happened with Brad Haddin.

"In terms of a breeding ground ... the Comets is a fantastic idea. I think the time for Canberra was right in 1997 and we were working towards something.

"If the Comets are re-entered, then they've lost years of development. But the time is right now."

The only question left is who will be the new generation's 'Swervin Merv'? I want Shane Warne.