India, Sept. 6 -- On November 15, 1989, four young cricketers walked onto the National Stadium in Karachi to begin their Test careers. One was a 16-year-old Indian whose name would eventually become inseparable from the sport itself. Another was an 18-year-old Pakistani fast bowler destined to become one of the most feared exponents of reverse swing the game had seen.

Sachin Tendulkar would finish with 200 Tests and 15,921 runs. Waqar Younis would play 87 Tests, take 373 wickets and become a Pakistani great. Yet that Karachi match also contained two careers at the opposite end of cricket's unforgiving spectrum. The other Pakistani debutant, Shahid Saeed, never played another Test. Neither did one of India's new faces.

For the Indian fas...