I also think that the 1960s were a truly disastrous decade for Pakistan as a cricket side, with the low-point being the captaincy of Javed Burki. I think that era, along with everything you mentioned, particularly the political factors greatly affected the Pakistan cricket team and the interest and fanfare around it. I think the turning point was the captaincy of Mushtaq Mohammad towards the end of the 1970s and in particular the tour of Australia in 1977, which saw the emergence of players like Imran and Javed.
Indeed, the conventional story is of the 1960s being an awful decade for Pakistan cricket. For Pakistan, no decade has seen a worse win-loss record in Tests as the 1960s. They won just two Tests as pointed out here. But I think there is also a ‘revisionist’ note to be added.
That Pakistan cricket succeeded in the 1950s, despite a difficult inheritance, owed much to the bowling of Fazal Mahmood - Pakistan’s greatest match-winner in the 1950s. He played his last Test in 1962. There was no one to replace him that could operate at the same level. The success also owed much to the leadership of A.H. Kardar. He played his last match in 1958.
Bereft of its two most influential players, the scanty organisational structure it inherited and the chronic shortage of funds caught up with Pakistan cricket in the 1960s. We should never forget that Pakistan cricket began its life with no Test match grounds, only two turf pitches and no first class cricket competition. The two most advanced cricket centres in the Pakistan areas, when the partitioner's axe was wielded in 1947, were Lahore and Karachi. But in Karachi, pre-partition, the Hindus and Parsees dominated the cricket scene and in Lahore, Hindus and Sikhs were responsible for much of the organisational structure. From 1957/8 to 1967/8 Hockey and Athletics received more in government grants. Lack of financial security, meant that for a period of time, Khalid Ibadulla and Mushtaq Muhammad opted to play county cricket instead of playing for Pakistan.
But here I would add a ‘revisionist’ note: beneath the surface some important developments were taking place that would lay foundations for a more successful era. In the 1960s, Asif Iqbal, Wasim Bari, Majid Khan and Mushtaq Mohammad emerged. Players began to play county cricket and this experience undoubtedly improved their game with longer-term consequences for the Pakistan team.
Then there was a greater geographic base: teams from Hyderabad, Sargodha, Multan, Khairpur, Peshawar and Quetta began playing first class cricket in the 1960s.
Perhaps even more significantly, the diffusion of cheap transistor radios, also helped to popularise the game. It was in the 1960s that the availability of cheap radios facilitated an increase in listenership, particularly in rural areas.
All of this had an impact on the eventual changes in the ‘mix’ of the team as they moved beyond an affluent base. One of the reasons Pakistan cricket had relative success in the 1950s, despite the trauma of partition and chronic shortage of funding, was a competitive college system (shared by British tradition), particularly in Lahore and to some extent in Karachi. According to some college cricket began to decline in the 1960s. Majid Khan, for example, believes that in an effort to increase student intake, more buildings and classrooms were built thereby reducing playing fields. For the more privileged, cricket was also perhaps seen as a distraction from studies and secure middle-class employment.
The slow democratisation of the game and decline of college cricket, led - in the long-run - to a profound shift in the make-up of the Pakistan cricket team, shifting the balance towards those that came from less affluent backgrounds, who were not steeped in British traditions and were far less respectful of traditional authority. Some of the roots of this can be traced to the 1960s, which despite being a dreadful decade for on-field results, witnessed significant developments that would help to fashion a very different Pakistan cricket team.
