It was India's first tour of Pakistan since 1955. The last time the two nations had met, at Delhi in February 1961, Mushtaq Mohammad, a 17-year-old then, had made 101. He was now captain of Pakistan in the revival series. In the intervening years, India and Pakistan had waged two wars, and it was evident by the pre-tour preparations how politically sensitive the series was: the team met the External Affairs Minister, who instructed them about various dos and don'ts. Even the appointment of Fatehsinh Rao Gaekwad, the Maharaja of Baroda, as manager was a carefully considered political and diplomatic exercise.

In the course of the tour we met a number of Pakistanis. Some of them, who had roots in Baroda, fell at the Maharaja's feet and begged him to help them migrate to India. At Lahore, I had an embarrassing moment when one such emotional person approached me thinking I was the Maharaja. I had to tell the poor chap I was Anshuman Gaekwad and not Fatehsinh Rao Gaekwad.

The other memories I have of the tour are mostly bitter. The umpiring was atrocious right through. Never had I seen umpires overlooking no-balls so blatantly. Things came to a head at Faisalabad, on the fourth day of the first Test, at the start of Pakistan's second innings. Umpire Shakoor Rana had warned Mohinder Amarnath for running on the pitch in his follow-through. Rana alleged that Sunil Gavaskar had used insulting language against the umpiring in the conversation that ensued, and he and the other umpire, Khalid Aziz, refused to officiate the next morning until action had been taken. Play was delayed by 11 minutes before a compromise was reached.

The crowds were just as hostile, especially towards Sunil, considering that he was the biggest thorn in Pakistan's flesh on that tour – he scored 882 runs from the eight first-class games on the tour, including 447 from the three Tests. The spectators weren't exactly appreciative of his batting, so Sunil used to mockingly applaud his own boundaries!

The worst moment on the tour came in the one-day series. India had lost six of the seven one-dayers they had played since their debut in 1974. But now, up against one of the finest teams in the world – one that had a bunch of players with plenty of limited-overs experience in English county cricket – we won the first one-dayer, at Quetta, by four runs. We were outclassed in the second, but the third match – and thus the series – was within our grasp.

Pakistan's reputation was on the block in the third game, at Sahiwal. We had eight wickets in hand to get 23 runs for victory, with three overs still to be bowled. I was at the crease and Vishy [Gundappa Viswanath] was with me, with players like Mohinder Amarnath, Kapil Dev and Yashpal Sharma to follow.

Sarfraz Nawaz came in to bowl the 38th over and soon left no one in any doubt about Pakistan's diabolical plan to prevent India from winning. The first ball of the over sailed high over Vishy's head. It passed so high that if another batsman of similar height were to stand on Vishy's shoulders, he still wouldn't have reached it. Ditto the second ball. And the third, and the fourth. Vishy was helpless. Even I, a six-footer, could not have reached those balls. It was the only thing the desperate Pakistanis could think of, as balls that were within striking range were being easily scored off. The umpires – Khizar Hayat and Javed Akhtar – didn't bat an eyelid. In fact, my protests to them were met with rebukes. Bishan Bedi, our captain, was outraged. The two principal culprits, bowler Sarfraz and captain Mushtaq, were Bedi's team-mates at Northamptonshire, but that obviously didn't make a difference. It was win at any cost for Pakistan. For India, it was clearly pointless to continue, and Bishan signalled for Vishy and me to come back to the pavilion.

For the first time ever, a visiting team conceded a match purely because they were denied the chance to put bat to ball by a home team blatantly resorting to unfair tactics with the connivance of home umpires. It was a blot on the name of cricket.

Anshuman Gaekwad played 40 Tests and 15 one-day internationals for India, and was later national selector and coach. He was speaking to H Natarajan, senior editor with Wisden Asia Cricket.

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