New Delhi, Sept. 1 -- Javagal Srinath turned 57 on Monday, a quiet birthday for a bowler whose loudest number never made the books. Days after he was spotted on the Bengaluru Metro, Indian cricket was still circling the same old question: did the Mysore Express really send down a 156 kph ball that beat Allan Donald and Lance Klusener, or did a shaky 1990s speed gun leave the country with a legend instead of a record?

Long before Umran Malik, Mayank Yadav, Jasprit Bumrah, Mohammed Shami and Ashok Sharma made 150 kph feel routine, Srinath was India's idea of fast.

The short answer is this: it was reported, it was widely repeated, and it was never officially logged. The claim sits between December 1996 and February 1997, when India toured ...