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Dhanraj Pillay not to call it quits after Olympics
The veteran hockey star ruled out immediate retirement from international fixtures but said his Olympic innings was over.
Veteran Indian hockey star Dhanraj Pillay on Friday ruled out immediate retirement from international fixtures but said his Olympic innings was over.
"It's not my last international participation," the former Indian skipper said during a brief appearance following India's 5-2 win over South Korea which fetched them the seventh position in the Games.
Pillay's comments contradicted India's coach Gerhard Rach's statement to the media that the mercurial player would be calling it a day after the Olympics.
The 36-year-old player, however, said, "this is my last appearance in an Olympic Games".
Pillay, who has drawn the ire of the team management for his criticism of coach Gerhard Rach's tactics in his newspaper columns, played for only the last 11 minutes in India's concluding engagement here, coming in place of the injured Viren Rasquinha.
Pillay, who joined the small list of Indian players to have turned out in four Olympics, said he regretted not having finished on the podium ever in the multi-discipline Games.
"I wanted to finish with a medal. I wanted us to have done better in this tournament. But we played badly in the tournament and didn't make it," he said.
