KARACHI: Former Pakistan hockey captain Abdul Haseem Khan has announced his ‘retirement’ from international hockey due to the alleged step-motherly treatment meted out to him by the national selectors and the team management.

“I’m calling it a day due to the apathy of selectors as well as the team management who didn’t consider me for the Dhaka Asia Cup and even among the 150 players who featured in the Nishan-i-Haider hockey tournament,” a dejected Haseem told a news conference on Wednesday.

Refuting baseless allegations against him such as lack of scoring or fitness, he clarified that he had scored five goals in the Asian Champions Trophy — two against Malaysia in the semi-final, two against Japan and one against South Korea in the pool matches.

The 30-year-old Haseem went on to say that he had scored five goals in the preceding series against New Zealand and one of the team’s total four goals against Australia.

“It was not wise to make World Hockey League London criteria for my ouster where the goalkeepers set a new Pakistan record of conceding 28 goals and are still in the team instead of being fired,” lamented the former Olympian.

To a question, he said he had no plans to review his decision as he feels he is being victimised because of his uncle Hanif Khan.

“It really is painful that the axe fell on me despite scoring fabulous 74 goals in 122 international matches, which is a testimony to my physical fitness and endurance,” remarked the former captain, who donned the national junior colours in 2006 and senior colours in 2008.

To another question, he said he had no differences with the PHF but added that the selectors and the team management had no vision to take the game forward.

It may be mentioned here that Pakistan finished a poor third in the Asia Cup at Dhaka recently, behind champions India and runners-up Malaysia.

The greenshirts scored 19 goals and conceded 16 in seven matches of the competition.

Published in Dawn, October 26th, 2017