The greatest tragedy of Nathan Astle's world record innings at Jade Stadium on Saturday was that it was watched by so few Cantabrians.

Very few cricket enthusiasts in the once strong bastion of New Zealand cricket, Christchurch, will be able to say in the future, "I was there".

Attendances at the pride of Canterbury sport were little short of a disgrace throughout the Test and it can only be wondered what the ground would have looked like had it not been swamped with English supporters.

Whatever the situation, Christchurch must surely have written itself off the Test match scheduling list after this was yet another demonstration of its inability to draw crowds to the South Island's main Test venue at Jade Stadium.

And the portable pitch has nothing whatsoever to do with it.

It is all to do with the inability of Cantabrians to get out and support their venue.

The decline in numbers has been obvious in recent years and with the ground taking on an increased appearance of a concrete jungle with the new West Stand nearing completion, the vast empty spaces, as seen in the television coverage of Astle's innings are little short of embarrassing.

Given the way the New Zealand Test team performed in Australia, there was every reason to expect some interest to be aroused among the cricket supporting fraternity.

However, even the One-Day International staged in Christchurch failed to attract the expected level of interest.

Given Christchurch's standing in the cricket scheme of things this has to be a worrying trend.

The likelihood always was that it would miss out on a Test next summer because a series, possibly of only two Tests against India, will be the only fare available as the World Cup is being staged in South Africa in February-March.

One of those Tests is certain to be a Boxing Day match at the Basin Reserve and the other will be in the north of the North Island.

Given Auckland's similar propensity for failing to support Test matches, the most likely candidate would have to be Hamilton.

But the real test will be the following summer 2003/04 when Pakistan and South Africa are due to tour. And at the moment Cantabrians have done nothing to boost their chances.

© CricInfo