University-Grange is the Christmas present you have to pick up from the post office.
You know there is going to be a long queue but you hope the wrapping will reveal something worth the wait.
The club is back in the senior grade this summer after a four-year absence and it is a welcome reversal of recent trends.
The sport has been withering at the roots for decades and any sign of new growth is to be celebrated with the sort of exuberance we brave from Danny Morrison.
There is just one niggly issue - the return has also ushered the return of the bye.
University-Grange president Matiu Workman has previously described the bye as growing pains. But he knows the team has to make it count for the other six clubs in the grade.
And that means more than just getting through the season without a default. The team will also have to be competitive if it wants to hold on to the goodwill of the cricket community.
It is, perhaps, the greatest challenge for a club which had about $100 in the bank about 12 months ago and was approaching an enduring kind of stumps.
"We are very aware of the pressures that that bye brings," Workman said.
"But I also think it shows the extraordinary decision by the other clubs to welcome us back into the competition even when that means having a bye.
"We wouldn't be here if it wasn't for those clubs, so it is about repaying that faith.
"But I know the guys don't want people to see them as just a team who is making up the numbers.
"We really want to be competitive and are eyeing up that first game against Carisbrook-Dunedin as an opportunity to stamp our mark and show people we are here to play.
"For us, success isn't being the seventh senior team - it is being the seventh senior team that will compete and go a long way towards making a statement."
If the team can play with the passion and tenacity the committee showed while turning around the club's fortunes, it should have a cracking season.
University-Grange had unraveled to the point where the committee was barely functioning, player numbers had dropped to under 30 and the coffers were more or less empty.
"It was about this time last year that we realised if we didn't do anything we were seriously at risk of losing the club," Workman revealed.
A new committee was formed and it identified re-establishing a senior team as a key factor in its long-term survival. It also badly needed some funds.
"We had about hundred-odd dollars at the time we became a committee ... but we are now in a very strong position."
The club quizzed its way to modest wealth with a couple of trivia nights which netted about $6000.
There were other fundraising efforts and many hours slipped away plotting the revival. But by July, resurrecting a senior team was still a margin prospect.
"We had our senior trial and we were looking fairly close but it just took a real brave step from our committee to say, `You know what, let's persevere with this'.
"It was a really intense effort from all the committee members. What we've got now in the committee is a really tight group of people who are all passionate about this club."
Workman went the extra mile. He made the spare room at his house available rent-free to help entice players to Dunedin.
The club advertised on the internet and has signed two overseas players for the season - Australian left-arm spinner and middle-order batsman Joshua Taylor, and Yorkshire seamer bowler Sam Noden.
The pair should help Grange be competitive in their comeback season.
Cam Meads will lead the team on the field and he is really invested in the side's success having played such a crucial role helping get the club into the position where it was able to return to the grade.
Grange will get some support from John McGlashan College during the university holidays when a few players will be missing. But Workman believes there is some competition within the squad for places and that bodes well for the summer.
"We've been training the house down for the last month or so to make sure they are all ready."
