By DAVID KAPI
RETIRED PNG rugby league export and Kumuls winger Marcus Bai has announced he is coming out of retirement to play in the one-off Telikom PNG Origin match at the Lloyd Robson Oval, in Port Moresby this Saturday.
PNGRFL boss Jeff Wade announced in a statement yesterday that Bai has announced his interest to come out from retirement to play on the PNG Internationals side against PNG Residents, after hanging his boots last year with the British Super League glamour club Saint Helens.
Telikom PNG Kumuls coach Adrian Lam said he was excited about Bai’s availability and appreciated services of Stanley Gene, Makali Aizu and himself work together to build good national team.
But Lam said that Marcus Bai and France based Tom O’Reilly are not eligible to be picked in the Telikom PNG Kumuls and wont make France tour.
Bai will line up against his prodigy and Telikom PNG PM’s XIII hero Michael Mark, dubbed the ‘new Marcus Bai’.
Bai, a local product from the then SP Inter-City Cup (now SP Cup), gained fame and fortune with the Australian NRL club Melbourne Storm and then went on to win premiership, only its second year and was name Dally M winger of the year.
The East New Britain legend is also some of the few players in the history of rugby league to have won premiership on both ends of hemisphere, one with Melbourne Storm in the NRL in Australia and other with Saint Helens in the British Super League, a feat no Papua New Guinean has ever achieved.
Wade said that this is the last chance for Marcus Bai fans to see him in action live who rarely has seen him play and probably for the very last time.
Bai retired from both club and international duties last year when he hanged up his boots, but remains some of the favorite sons of PNG to have ever donned red, black and gold jumper.