"Indore kaisa hai (How is Indore)?” inquired leg-spinner Narendra Hirwani about his city as he waved from the dugout zone during a one-day match of India's tour to New Zealand in February-March 1990.

Three decades ago, it was unusual to have an Indian cricketer loosening up enough to share a casual moment on camera. For a generation of followers of Indian cricket, it was a rare moment. Importantly, it was also the first time that Doordarshan, in an arrangement with Kerry Packer’s Channel 9, was bringing a live telecast of cricket being played in New Zealand.

That’s a full 30 years before millions could watch New Zealand’s cricket grounds hosting the Indian side led by Virat Kohli — as they’re doing as we speak.

There were two riders, though. First, Doordarshan covered only the one-day leg of the tour, which was actually part of the triangular Rothmans Cup between India, New Zealand, and Australia. It didn’t cover the Test series. Second, in covering the one-day matches, Doordarshan limited itself to broadcasting India’s matches alone.

Since the mid-1980s, Doordarshan had started to cover India’s one-day games in Australia, mostly played as part of the Benson & Hedges Cup. As all the matches weren’t day-night games, a generation of cricket followers in India had the experience of waking up at 4.30 am to watch the live telecast.

The live telecast from New Zealand, however, was even more demanding, as some matches started at 3 am IST. But nobody complained; the live feed of international cricket played abroad was very rare for Indian viewers at the time.

Before the Rothmans Cup began, India had lost a three-match Test series 1-0 to the Kiwis. Back then, New Zealand had, in its ranks, bowling legend Sir Richard Hadlee and world-class batting talent like Martin Crowe. As a team, the Kiwis may not have been much fancied, but they were no pushovers either, especially on their home turf. In any case, India was a poor travelling team, more so on bouncy and seaming pitches.

India’s batting unit was in a transition phase, still recovering from the exit of maestro Sunil Gavaskar three years before, and with the intermittent services of middle-order stalwarts like Dilip Vengsarkar. Moreover, there was a change of guard in India’s leadership and as the captain of the team, Mohammad Azharuddin was facing a major test on foreign soil.

The middle order had teenage sensation Sachin Tendulkar, who was still a while away from a significant innings in international cricket, and his fellow Mumbaikar, Sanjay Manjrekar, who had earned a reputation as a technically accomplished run-accumulator during the Pakistan tour. There were also new faces like Tamil Nadu opener VB Chandrasekhar and Gursharan Singh.

The bowling was spearheaded by the legendary Kapil Dev and the new swingmaster, Manoj Prabhakar. Atul Wasan, the Delhi medium-pacer, was on his first major international tour. Narendra Hirwani — who hadn’t made much impact after his impressive debut against West Indies in 1988 — was leading the spin attack, aided by Hyderabadi left-arm spinner Vekantapathy Raju, who was making his debut.

After being defeated comprehensively by the Kiwis in the first Test at Christchurch, India showed some signs of recovering as a batting unit in the second Test at Napier, before rains washed out a major part of the match. The records-obsessed Indians were hoping the teenage star,Tendulkar, would score his maiden Test century to become the youngest centurion in Test history. At the close of the first day’s play, the 16-year-old was not out on about 80 runs, kindling many overnight hopes in India of him surpassing Mushtaq Mohammad to become the youngest batsman to score a Test century.

That wasn’t to be.

The next morning, Tendulkar added eight more runs to his overnight score before tentatively attempting a cover drive to an overpitched Danny Morrison delivery. The mistimed drive was caught by John Wright who, many years later, was India’s coach when Tendulkar played many memorable knocks. Eleven years later, however, another South Asian, Mohammad Ashraful, was 17 days younger than Mushtaq Mohammad when he became the youngest Test centurion.

However, what’s forgotten while recalling Tendulkar’s missed chance is a far closer miss. India had opened its batting with swing bowler Prabhakar and he scored a patient 95 before being dismissed. It was the beginning of India’s discovery of an underrated all-rounder. In the 1990s, Prabhakar went on to play many gritty knocks for India at the top of the order.

The third Test at Auckland ended in a tame draw as batsmen from both teams piled runs on a listless surface. While Indian captain Azharuddin scored 192 in the first innings, New Zealand’s innings was a fine rescue century by wicketkeeper Ian Smith in the first innings. That was followed by centuries by the great Martin Crowe and Andrew Jones in the second innings. The Indian second innings saw impressive half-centuries by WV Raman and Prabhakar before the match ended without any result.

India did badly in the one-day phase too and won only one match in the Rothmans Cup, and that too by only one run.

The series, in many ways, exposed chinks in India’s fragile batting order. Fresh talents like VB Chandrasekhar couldn’t make the most of the limited chances he got in the one-day matches. Later, he wasn’t heard of much in the international circuit.

Chandrasekhar went on to involve himself with the administrative side of cricket as a national selector. In 2019, he made news for tragic reasons: he committed suicide at his Mylapore residence in Chennai, reportedly over financial stress.

The international career of Punjab opener Gursharan Singh also didn’t go too far, and he was soon shown the door. The emerging star cast of Indian cricket, led by Manjrekar and Tendulkar, didn’t have an outstanding series either, but they showed enough promise to be persisted with.

The tour is also remembered for the controversial comments made by Indian coach Bishan Singh Bedi, the great spinner of his time. Expressing his anguish over the team's poor performance, Bedi reportedly said the entire team should be dumped into the ocean. Now, one can imagine how much furore such comments would have caused in the news media.

Thirty years ago, smaller grounds and the relaxed ambience of international cricket in New Zealand made millions of cricket followers in India take early morning notes about cricket in a small country in the Australian continent. While this may not be significant for a generation which grew up in an age when satellite television and internet provides 24-hour coverage of international cricket from all parts of the world, it carries the evolutionary strands of cricket-viewership for an earlier generation.

As usual, it was through the whims of Doordarshan that a generation had a look at cricket in New Zealand. That’s something that you can now have on your mobile screen by paying the subscription fee of a streaming app.