Pakistan pacer Kainat Imtiaz has drawn the curtains on her career as a cricketer after 13 years. She has decided instead to take up a role as a match referee.
Kainat’s 13-year-old career
Kainat debuted in a Women’s T20I game against South Africa in October 2010, where she announced her arrival with a brace of wickets. This would be the first and only time she took more than one wicket in a single T20I game.
Despite having a career that spanned 13 years, she only played 19 WODIs and 21 WT20Is. She has a total of 18 international wickets, of which she took 10 wickets at 51.40 in ODIs and had eight T20I scalps at an economy rate of 5.82.
She hasn’t played any international game since her ODI appearance against Australia Women in 2023. The last time she took an international wicket in ODIs was in 2022, which was her first dismissal since 2019.
She was also a part of the Pakistan sides which bagged gold in the Asian Games in 2010 and 2014. Besides that, she represented Pakistan in the 2022 Commonwealth Games, which was her first multi-nation tournament appearance since the 2017 Women’s ODI World Cup.
Kainat to make a career switch
Kainat will follow in her mother’s footsteps as she retires as a cricketer. Her mother, Saleema Imtiaz, is the first Pakistani woman umpire who is a part of the ICC’s international development panel. Saleema has stood as an umpire in nine WODIs and 69 WT20Is.
This is the second instance that a Pakistani woman cricketer has retired in favour of a career as a match official. Previously, pacer Aiman Anwar made a career switch to umpiring following her struggles with a knee injury that hampered her bowling significantly. Both Aiman and Kainat also ventured into broadcasting during their careers.
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