Sack the brand managers and downsize the image-making department at once. Who said India is the land of spin? And so what if Harbhajan Singh is stamping on the psyche of the England cricket team with hobnailed cricket boots? When the entire quick bowling line-up of a team can be sacked and replaced with three first-timers, as has happened in the Test at Mohali, surely it's time to put the pace academies on the stock market.

REFUSING TO SHINE: (From top) Khan, Agarkar and Nehra

The figures from South Africa tell the story-Javagal Srinath 15 wickets from three Tests, official and unofficial; other quicks, seven. All is also not well in the never-ending tug-of-war between the Indian team management and the national selectors and that reflected in the sudden axing of Ashish Nehra, Zaheer Khan and Ajit Agarkar without so much as a by your leave to Ganguly and Co in South Africa. The replacements-Tinu Yohannan, 22 years old, the other two, Iqbal Siddiqui and Sanjay Bangar, long-serving cricketers pushing 30. There are many more like them playing domestic cricket but none at the moment looks close to taking over from Srinath.

David Gower raised a questioning eyebrow at the three in Mohali. "They are not quick enough. The captain should expect to pick a couple of bowlers quicker than the ones we saw. And he also needs experience, at least two who know what they are doing." But at home, where the slow bowlers can grind a batsman's determination down into fine powder and the close-in catchers give him little room to breathe, it all evens out. It is in Indian cricket's lost kingdom-the overseas tours-that the shortfalls add up. In the past six months, India has played eight Tests (Centurion included) overseas, lost four and won two.

In South Africa, what loomed over all the batting collapses and match referee hearings was the failure of India's younger crop of quick bowlers to come through as worthy strike partners for Srinath. They had wickets that were made for their brand of bowling as tap dancing was for Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers. The presence of left-armers Khan and Nehra and the deceptively quick Agarkar was expected to help the Indians compete on a par. Instead, India failed to bowl out the South Africa twice in any Test, conceding 500 runs twice.

Srinath, who became only the second Indian fast bowler after Kapil Dev to take 200 Test wickets, enjoys a reputation far bigger overseas than it is at home. "The other Indian bowlers are not up in the pace bracket," says Kepler Wessels. Srinath himself says, "I think if we had another bowler who could have got 200 wickets in the past decade I'm sure we would have won so many more games in the last decade."

Sports QUICK COMPARISONS OTHE SPEED GUN RATINGS   INDIA     AJIT AGARKAR 142 Kmph   ZAHEER KHAN 138 Kmph   JAVAGAL SRINATH 137 Kmph   TINU YOHANNAN 135 Kmph   SANJAY BANJAR 133 Kmph   ENGLAND   JAMES ORMOND 140 Kmph   ANDREW FLINTOFF 140 Kmph   MATTHEW HOGGARD 139 Kmph   CRAIG WHITE 137 Kmph   SOUTH AFRICA   NANTIE HAYWARD 152 Kmph   MAKHAYA NTINI 145 Kmph   JACQUES KALLIS 143 Kmph

In South Africa, captain Shaun Pollock may have picked up most of the wickets but his support bowlers Makhayatini and Nantie Hayward made sure that they at least kept the batsmen hopping. At the nets with the Indians during the "Test" at Centurion, former South African swing bowler Fanie de Villiers told India Today, "When I look at the younger Indian bowlers, I know there's definitely a lack of knowledge there. It is sad it's found out at this level." Knowledge comes with proper coaching, experience and mentoring: barring Agarkar, none of the young trio in South Africa or the three used in Mohali, has too much experience. Open-hearted mentoring, of the kind that Imran Khan fostered in Pakistan, is sadly in very short supply in Indian cricket. There is an old story about a young Srinath: on his first major overseas tour to Australia in 1992, when he was both fast and furious, he was advised by a senior bowling partner that the best tactic against the home team would be to bowl short. He was pulled and cut to pieces.

Brett Schultz, who bowled left-arm for South Africa in the mid 1990s, told India Today, "As I see it, the Indian quick bowlers don't have the pace. I don't know if they work hard enough." His captain Wessels adds, "They never gave me the impression of physical toughness." It all translates into the difference in speeds (see box) and the ability to sustain it over sessions and seasons.

SLOW MOTION: (From top to below) Siddiqui, Bangar and Yohannan made their debuts at Mohali

When Zaheer Khan made his debut at the ICC Knock Out trophy in Kenya last year, yorking Steve Waugh, he regularly bowled at over 140 kmph, even hitting the 150 kmph mark-which only a handful of bowlers like Brett Lee, Shoaib Akhtar, Hayward can do. In South Africa, Khan could not touch 140 kmph. Both he and Nehra had just returned from injury-Khan had painful shins and Nehra a groin problem-and Srinath explained, "It takes time to get into rhythm, it has been hard on them. I think now they have realised the amount of bowling that needs to go into international cricket to be at the top level." The injuries, combined with the increased workload in South Africa, mean they function only half as efficiently as the team needs them to.

Few cricketers come into the Indian team with a base level of fitness or athleticism, even though physiotherapist Andrew Leipus says the average level has actually improved in the last two years. They then spend time in between matches trying to play catch-up-sometimes with the unlikeliest of competitors. One fine morning in Durban, the Indians went on a 45-minute beach run. Four players finished behind coach John Wright, who is a mere 47. When young fast bowlers register a slowdown of 10 kmph over a long day's cricket, it means the engine doesn't quite have the capacity to keep it performing to full potential.

Leipus finds himself under pressure every time an Indian player chips a fingernail. Because the stakes are high and insecurity rife, some players, particularly the younger quick bowlers, have come back to the team without their recovery work fully done or, worse, insisted five weeks into an eight-week recovery programme that they were fit. In order to prevent cheating in the gym, Leipus now insists the players wear "polar" watches, which record not only the duration of the training but also, through its heart-rate monitor, the intensity. The information is downloaded from the watch to Leipus' laptop and he knows who has or hasn't worked hard enough. The watches cost $180 (Rs 8,500)-and every player has had to buy his own.

It may seem like a lot of bother over a bunch of bone-lazy sportsmen, but that's a simplification. The Indian dressing room to some is a piece of real estate to be earned and sat upon, not a fuelling station for greatness. The whole purpose of some cricketers' careers is to do their damnedest to get in, and then survive rather than shine. Particularly in the fast bowling department, where physical effort needed is the hardest. Says Srinath: "I think the attitude of the bowlers needs to change. When most cricketers come into international cricket they are so satisfied with playing for India at last, that it becomes everything. If someone gets into international cricket, his idea should be that he would play for the next 10 years." Making a personal commitment of a professional requirement takes very little: England allrounder Andrew Flintoff used to be called Freddie, after the tubby cartoon character Fred Flintstone. The demands of being a county and national cricketer forced him into hiring a personal trainer, changing his diet, shedding weight and staying in contention.

In South Africa, they have wrapped up their fastest bowler, Mfuenko Ngam, in cottonwool following a series of stress fractures. He has incorporated changes in his diet after bone densitometry revealed that his bones were not as strong as they needed to be, perhaps due to dietary deficiencies in his childhood. Compare this to Nehra who was discarded from the Indian team after two Tests in 1999, branded injury-prone and then left to deal with ankle surgery and a comeback supported by no entity more powerful than his local club coach. Or Khan who began bowling with a cricket ball at the age of 17 and is now, in the middle of an international season, debating the merits of the right balance between cardiovascular fitness and upper body strength to make him the bowler he was a year ago.

The MRF Pace Foundation, supposed to provide a supply of quick bowlers, has produced many sparks but not a single steady flame to keep Srinath company on difficult overseas tours. But, says T.A. Sekhar, former Test bowler and chief coach at the foundation: "Bowlers should be given enough time. Kapil or Imran never bowled as frequently as Srinath or any other Indian fast bowler. Kapil was a great bowler who could adapt to any condition. But then, he got time to do it." Middlesex captain Angus Fraser, who took 177 Test wickets for England, has another piece of advice-all else being equal in the skill department, take care of the body and the bowling will take care of itself. "I had to train more as I grew older, not take my body for granted any more. Fitness you can control-how your form is on a day-to-day basis you cannot."

The BCCI has only recently appointed its prodigal son Kapil as the new bowling consultant to the Indian team and the National Cricket Academy. There is little Kapil has not achieved or learnt as a bowler. He has an epidemic on his hands and if he has the cure, then his legacy to Indian cricket will extend far beyond the 1983 Prudential World Cup and 432 Test wickets. This is not the first that is being heard of the country's famous fast-bowling shortage and it won't be the last, unless Jagmohan Dalmiya, the permanently preoccupied president of the BCCI, uses his big stick on the system he has helped perpetuate. Sometime in November, in his mountain of correspondence, Dalmiya received two 15-page letters. They were from Wright and Leipus, often seen as the targets of his latest "nationalisation" purge, and talk about the physical and cricketing programme that needs to be put in place if India are to be competitive in the run-up to the 2003 World Cup and beyond.

In more ways than would seem obvious in these days of Mike Denness, the future of Indian cricket is in Dalmiya's hands.