Monday, September 17, 2001 The summer of 1996 was Indian. England won the three-Test series 1-0, but defeat had never tasted sweeter for India. They were beaten, but not outclassed. Indeed, with some luck, they could even have won. And there were huge gains. Sourav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid announced themselves as major batting talents with two centuries and two near-centuries, but even more heartening was the performance of two Indian opening bowlers.

Figures did scant justice to the way Javagal Srinath and Venkatesh Prasad bowled in that series. Srinath made the ball dip and climb; Prasad made it swerve and wobble; and together, they made life hell for English batsmen. Dropped catches and missed edges restricted their harvest to only 26 wickets but it was clear that at long last, India had found two pace bowlers to hunt as a pair.

Five years later, it seems like a cruel dream. Srinath and Prasad are still around, but you can't help wondering why. They are still capable of turning in the odd good performance. Both had five-wicket hauls in Sri Lanka, Srinath in a lost cause at Galle and Prasad in a matchwinning one at Kandy. But their good days are easily outnumbered by the bad days, and the bad days are outrageously, shockingly, hopelessly bad.

Only once after that summer did they recapture the magic: in the following series in South Africa they collected 35 wickets in three Tests and although India again lost 2-0, Srinath and Prasad never allowed themselves to be dominated. But that was it. It was as high as they would ever climb.

We should have seen the portents towards the end of the South African tour. In the third Test at Johannesburg, South Africa were as good as buried on the last day at 95 for 7, but ended the day 228 for 8. Srinath and Prasad bowled 39 overs between them in that innings and had four wickets, but not the two that mattered. Lance Klusener, not yet the batsman we know him to be now, stood firm with Daryll Cullinan for nearly two hours to earn a draw for South Africa.

A year later, Srinath refused to take the new ball in the second innings of the final Test against New Zealand at Hamilton, saying he was tired after scoring 76. Trailing 1-0, India had taken a 50-run lead, there were only 16 overs to be bowled that day and facing at the batting crease was Mathew Bell, whom Srinath had dismissed twice already, including a second-ball duck in the first innings. Yet the new ball went to the debutant Robin Singh Jr. Bell survived and New Zealand went on to pile up 464 runs.

And last month, Srinath was spotted in the safety of the players' enclosure, nursing an injured left hand at Galle, watching Rahul Dravid and Prasad wage a grim battle to avert India's first-ever innings defeat against Sri Lanka. India were eight wickets down and were inching ahead run by run. And was he padded up to play for the pride of his team had a wicket fallen even two runs short of mark? You bet not. He was in his shorts, wearing his now familiar vacant expression.

It's bad enough not to care, but to show it so brazenly is criminal. Indian cricket needs players with the stomach for a fight. You can be sure that even if Srinath possessed Glenn McGrath's skills with the ball, he wouldn't have got within sniffing distance of Steve Waugh's team.

Prasad, the gentle giant of Indian cricket, has gone progressively gentler with age. He is only military-medium and getting slower. Soon, he will have lost his most effective weapon - the slower ball - because there will be nothing to differentiate it from his regular ball. He is increasingly error-prone and, at his pace, even the slightest lapse in line and length is begging for punishment.

Both men are in the one-day team to South Africa and it is not easy to understand why. Srinath has an economy rate since January 2000 of 5.55. Prasad has done marginally better with 4.86 but has gone for more than 60 three times in the last five matches. With their gingerly running and lady-like throws from the boundary, they are worth 10 runs to the opposition in the field. And worse, they are easily disheartened and reek of meekness and surrender. Given the rawness of this team, selecting one senior pace bowler was perhaps an imperative, but together, they are a luxury India can ill afford.

There is wisdom in tempering youth with experience. But not when the experienced are a bad example for the youth.

Sambit Bal is India editor of Wisden.com. His column appears every Monday.

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