Jude Menezes to call it a day

mumbai: indian hockey goalkeeper jude menezes has decided to call it a day. after serving the national side now for more than a decade at both, the junior and senior level, the cool and competent custodian has determined that he needs to devote more time to his family. in a letter faxed to the president of the indian hockey federation (ihf), mr. k.p.s.gill, and secretary, mr. k. jothikumaran, on tuesday, the bharat petroleum senior officer, has stated: ‘‘after a lot of thought and discussions with my family and with a heavy heart i regret to inform that i will not be available to represent the country in the future. menezes, who gradually grew from a fairly competent goalkeeper with the indian juniors way back in 1992 to one of the world’s best in the newmillennium, is now set to settle down with his family in new zealand. that is his primary reason. ‘‘i had already decided on migrating to new zealand. my final target was the world cup in kuala lumpur,’’ said menezes here on tuesday. his first tour of duty for flag and country was at the junior world cup qualifiers in malaysia in 1992 and, though he was unaccountably ignored by the national selectors for the next five years, playing second fiddle to ashish ballal and a.b. subbaiah, he fought back with sheer grit and determination to get his rightful place in the team. the high point of his decade-long career came in the year 2000 and continued till the recent world cup in kuala lumpur which, unfortunately, ended in disaster, both for the country and himself. he was woefully off colour as much as the team was disjointed. but it was at the 4-nation tournament in perth in 2000, the dhaka gold cup the following year and the champions challenge and the azlan shah that jude really made his mark, receiving rave reviews by the foreign media.