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. “But every time we tour or England play, there’s full stadiums, there’s thousands of England fans that travel overseas. And I get the point that maybe outside of England, Australia and India, the crowds might not be there, but from our experience and what we see, Test cricket is well and truly alive.”
Despite the bounties of franchise cricket, plenty of players are still passionate about the Test game, evinced by Ben Duckett and Harry Brook turning down huge financial rewards in the IPL to focus on the red ball. “Growing up, all I wanted and all I dreamt of was playing cricket for England,” Duckett said when he withdrew from the IPL last month. “That comes with sacrifices.”
But TV revenue is the economic lifeblood of sport, and broadcasters would appear less bullish about bilateral series. Sky Sports has turned its focus to darts, pouncing on the Luke Littler phenomenon in a £125m, five-year deal with the Professional Darts Corporation. The move aligns with its wider strategy for football and Formula 1 to capture a loyal audience who follow a season-long narrative all year round – a narrative that cricket’s fragmented calendar increasingly lacks.
The Independent understands that cricket remains an important piece of Sky Sports’ portfolio, and its long-standing relationship with the ECB is still highly valued – a relationship critical to the game’s future health. But Sky hasn’t show an England tour since Pakistan in October 2024 and has effectively withdrawn from England abroad, given South Africa was the last of its overseas contracts.
It is hard to criticise when Sky has poured so much into the game, alongside industry-leading coverage. These tours can be expensive things to produce and broadcasters are not in a position to pay over the odds. Competition from streaming services such as Amazon Prime Video, DAZN and Netflix has encouraged financial prudence among the UK’s major channels in recent years. Every decision is carefully made, informed by data on which events drive subscriptions. And the reality is that buying up a winter tour is hard to justify when Sky already shows an overflowing slate of live football over the festive period and darts all day, almost every day, for three weeks.
TNT Sports could still swoop for England in South Africa, given it has shown several overseas tours in recent years including the recent Ashes. But it is also focusing energy elsewhere, with increased investment in cycling coverage, and the future is unclear after it relinquished its shining light, the Champions League. TNT will stop showing Uefa competitions next year when Paramount, Amazon Prime Video and Sky Sports take over.
“I really hope the South Africa series is picked up on TV, because UK audiences watching cricket is so important for the growth of the Test game,” adds Canning. “Last time we travelled there in 2019/20, it was full stadiums, an amazing atmosphere. It’s just a brilliant culture, a brilliant part of the world. We love traveling there and we’re fully expecting that the South African locals will get behind the series as well.”
The dream scenario for cricket fans, of course, would be the return of Test matches to free-to-air TV. It might seem fanciful, especially at a time when the BBC’s live sports coverage is receding. But it happened not so long ago, albeit in extraordinary circumstances, when Channel 4 arrived on the scene late to secure England’s 2021 tour of India in a one-off agreement during the pandemic.
Test cricket has been owned by subscription services for two decades, ever since that golden summer of 2005 played out to a nation on Channel 4, when city offices ground to a halt and geography teachers would wheel in the big TV so the entire class could watch. Sky Sports still shows sepia-toned footage of those Tests, but tends not to mention that the reason the 2005 Ashes was such a cultural phenomenon was because the entire country watched it live in an act of national communion.
Currently there is no cricket at all among the government’s “crown jewels” – those events of national significance potected by law, which must be televised on free-to-air channels. The A list includes the Olympics, Fifa World Cups, the Euros, Wimbledon and the Grand National. England’s home Test matches and Cricket World Cup finals are list B events, which means free-to-air broadcasters must offer highlights, but the live coverage is owned by paid-for TV.
Labour MPs are lobbying for an expansion to the government’s group A list. But reports suggest MPs are more focused on rugby and football, with plans to elevate the Six Nations and some Champions League games to list A. Cricket is likely to remain at the behest of market forces. And in the modern landscape, in a winter world dominated by the Premier League and Luke Littler, expensive rights for one-off cricket tours don’t move the needle.
