Duffy had worked hard over several years to push his way into the Otago Volts.
He played 18 first-class games, four one-day fixtures and two twenty20 games after making his Volts debut in 2013.
The top-order batsman gained a fulltime contract with the Volts for the 2016-17 season and scored a century in the last of his first-class outings in 2016.
However, the following season Otago opted to bring in Rob Nicol from Auckland which meant Duffy was squeezed out of the contracts list.
It prompted the older brother of Otago captain Jacob Duffy to look at life after cricket.His cricket kit bag has been stored away since.
However, the 27-year-old, who has a first-class average of 30, has decided to play again.
Southland coach Steve Jackson said manager Murray Fitzgibbon recently touched base with Duffy to see how he was getting on and inquire if there was any interest in returning to cricket.
Jackson said Duffy said he did have "itchy feet" and indicated he would be keen to make himself available again.Duffy has been whisked into the Southland team to take on Mid Canterbury in the two-day Hawke Cup fixture in Invercargill this weekend.
"He’s going to have a go and see if that spark is still there, and we are going to do everything we can to fuel that," Jackson said.
Duffy has had a season away from playing but Jackson said Southland was in a good position to throw him straight back into it and provide him with the time to find his feet again.
Southland holds the Hawke Cup and, with its first defence not until February, it effectively means it has a two-month build-up.
Duffy has replaced Venkat Kotte in the Southland set-up which last weekend travelled to Alexandra to take on Otago Country. In another change, Jack Mockford comes in for spinner Ben Lockrose.
Lockrose was called into the Otago team for this week’s four-day fixture against the Central Stags in Alexandra.
The yet-to-be-named Southland 12th man will be released to play club cricket today.
Southland is in search of a much better showing than the first-innings loss to Otago Country last weekend.
Otago Country racked up 342 batting first before rolling Southland for 138.
Southland was made to follow on and feared much better in its second turn at bat, finishing the match 116 for one to avoid an outright loss.
While Jackson did not feel his team was complacent, he said the performance against Otago Country did provide the team with a wake-up call.
• King’s High School was outclassed by a talented Christchurch Boys’ High School line-up at the Gillette Cup finals yesterday.
The Dunedin school was dismissed for 167 and Christchurch Boys’ overhauled the target with more than 20 overs and seven wickets in hand.
Hawke Cup
Southland v Mid Canterbury
Shaun Fitzgibbon (captain), Jason Domigan, Sam Downing, Ryan Duffy, Jarred Mckenzie, Jack Mockford, James Ng, Jason Osborne, Amarpreet Singh, Hamish Skelt, Danyn Stewart, Harsh Visavidaya.
