Casting return value to a generic type

Question

Suppose we have an interface with a single generic method:

public interface IExtender
{
    T GetValue<T>(string tag);
}

and a simple implementation A of it that returns instances of two different types (B and C) depending on the "tag" parameter:

public class A : IExtender
{
    public T GetValue<T>(string tag)
    {
        if (typeof(T) == typeof(B) && tag == null)
            return (T)(object) new B();
        if (typeof(T) == typeof(C) && tag == "foo")
            return (T)(object) new C();
        return default(T);
    }
}

is it possible to avoid the double cast (T)(object)? Or, is there a way to tell the compiler "hey, I am sure that this cast won't fail at runtime, just let me do it without first casting to object!"

Answer 1

public T MyMethod<T>(string tag) where T : class
    {
        return new A() as T;
    }