LAHORE: Pakistan goalkeeper Imran Butt on Friday announced his retirement from international hockey after the national team produced another miserable performance at the recently-held World Cup in the Indian city of Bhubaneswar.

Imran, who launched his international career after the 2012 London Olympics, ended it on a very disappointing note in the World Cup where the green-shirts were brutally knocked out by eventual winners Belgium in the cross-over stage.

The 30-year-old’s best achievement at the international level was when Pakistan claimed silver medal at the 2014 Champions Trophy, which also was staged in Bhubaneswar.

“It is my personal decision to retire from international hockey and there is no pressure on me from the [Pakistan hockey] federation,” Imran, the younger brother of Olympian Rehan Butt who recently resigned as national team assistant coach, said.

The Lahore-born player, who featured in 142 international games for Pakistan, now intends to coach goalkeepers.

“[After retirement] I will train goalkeepers as modern coaching is necessary to produce goalkeepers of international standard in Pakistan for future. Hockey goalkeeping over the years has totally changed and I will consult senior goalkeeper Salman Akbar, who is engaged in coaching abroad, to start my coaching career,” said Imran who was part of Pakistan team which earned silver medal at the 2014 Asian Games held in Incheon, South Korea.

Commenting on the recently-concluded World Cup, Imran reckoned though Pakistan conceded heavy defeats to the Netherlands (5-1) and Belgium (5-0), the margins were not bigger when compared with high-scoring defeats suffered by England at the hands of Belgium and Australia during the same event.

“Australia defeated England 8-1 in the third-place playoff and Belgium blanked them 6-0 in the semi-final while we were beaten by Belgium and the Netherlands by five-goal margin, and we should also not ignore the fact that both these teams went on to play the final,” deemed the goalkeeper.

To a question regarding the senior players’ failure to perform at the World Cup, Imran said with limited resources Pakistan team did what they could do.

“I welcome the juniors replacing the seniors and my retirement is also aimed at vacating the place for juniors. However, everyone should accept the fact: a couple of months ahead of the World Cup, [even] our participation in the mega event was in the balance,” he said.

It is pertinent to mention here that financial issues faced by the players with the PHF had also been haunting the Bhubaneswar-bound squad, who received their payments from the federation -- after it signed a sponsorship deal with a private company -- on the eve of their departure for the World Cup. Officials of the cash-strapped PHF had even feared former four-time world champions Pakistan could miss the showpiece due to what they termed extreme financial crisis faced by the federation.

Imran said the PHF had always made payments to the players provided it had funds.

He pointed out that while the PHF was still considering including either seniors or juniors for the Pro Hockey League (starting in February 2019), while the other countries had already announced their final squads.

Published in Dawn, December 22nd, 2018