In returning love, initially, one gets love (3)
I believe the answer is:
nil
'love' is the definition.
(love and nil mean zero in cricket and football)
'in returning love initially' is the wordplay.
'returning' is a reversal indicator.
'initially' says to take the initial letters.
The first letter of 'love' is 'l'.
'in' in reverse letter order is 'ni'.
'ni'+'l'='NIL'
'one gets' acts as a link.
This may not be correct. Some or all of it may belong to another bit of the clue.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for nil that I've seen before include "Score of nought" , "0" , "Zero, no score" , "You get nothing" , "Nothing, zilch" .)