Why don’t broadcasters want England’s tour of South Africa? This is what it says about Test cricket’s future

England are heading to South Africa this Christmas to take on the world champions over three Test matches in Johannesburg, Centurion and Cape Town, before three one-day internationals – and as it stands, nobody in the UK will be watching. Sky Sports ’ contract with Cricket South Africa has expired, and TNT Sports has thus far turned down the opportunity to take over the reins. There is still plenty of time for something to be agreed.

Cricket South Africa will need to drop its reported £8m price but history tells us these series eventually get picked up, even if they require last-minute intervention. England’s white-ball tour of Bangladesh three years ago was bought by Sky Sports only after the ECB made a late financial contribution to smooth negotiations with the Bangladesh Cricket Board. But the current limbo raises familiar concerns about the state of Test cricket.

This is a series against a top-tier nation, in a time zone well suited for UK viewers, largely playing out over the Christmas holidays when most of us are beached on the sofa. It is about as marketable as an England tour gets outside the Ashes, and the lack of take-up by broadcasters only reinforces the sense that in cricket’s cluttered ecosystem, bilateral series like this one are an increasingly endangered species. It is a view held by Lalit Modi, the architect of the Indian Premier League , who warned this week that Test cricket is “dying” outside of England and Australia.

Speaking to the Stick to Cricket podcast , Modi proposed turning Test matches into four-day day-night games to help attract new, younger audiences. That is not a perspective shared by dedicated England supporters, who are expecting stadiums to be packed with both home and away fans when they travel to South Africa this winter. “I think it’s a story and a narrative that keeps rearing its head every year, that Test cricket is dying,” says Adam Canning, who runs the Barmy Army’s tours abroad.