Pakistan news – Kainat Imtiaz retires from internationals to become match referee

Pakistan pace bowler Kainat Imtiaz has announced retirement from international cricket to pursue a career as a match referee. She recently officiated matches in the PCB National Women’s Under-19 T20 tournament which was played in Karachi in August and September.

Imtiaz, a right-arm quick, played 19 ODIs and 21 T20Is in a career that spanned 13 years. She made her international debut in October 2010 in a T20I against South Africa in Potchefstroom and played her first ODI the year after against Ireland in Fatullah. She took 10 wickets at 51.40 in ODIs and had eight T20I scalps at an economy rate of 5.82

Imtiaz was a member of the Pakistan teams that won gold in the 2010 and 2014 Asian Games in China and South Korea respectively and also played in the 2022 Commonwealth Games and the 2017 World Cup.

She last played for Pakistan in an ODI against Australia at the Gabba in January 2023 and her last appearance in the shorter format was against Thailand in Sylhet in the 2022 Asia Cup.

Imtiaz has since worked as a broadcaster, presenting and commentating in cricket tournaments locally and internationally. But she recently decided to follow in her mother’s footsteps and establish herself as a match official.

Her mother Saleema Imtiaz is the first Pakistani woman umpire to become part of the ICC’s international development panel and has officiated in nine women’s ODIs and 69 women’s T20Is.

Imtiaz is the second former woman cricketer from Pakistan to become a match referee recently after Aiman Anwar called time on her international career in August.

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