SYDNEY, Dec 31: Ticket sales for the third Test against Pakistan starting at Sydney Cricket Ground on Sunday have been the slowest in Sydney for years, suggesting Australians may be tiring of seeing their team win match after match.

By Friday afternoon there were about 3000 tickets unsold for Sunday, 9000 for Monday and 17,000 for Tuesday. Unless an unusually large walk-up crowd arrives on Sunday morning, SCG is unlikely to have sell-out attendance it has come to expect on the opening day of new year Test.

This also means play would not be televised in Sydney. Officials are blaming subdued demand for tickets on several factors, including a lack of draw cards in Pakistani side, but nobody doubts that one-sided nature of the series so far is main reason.

Australians have outclassed Pakistan in the first two Tests. These lopsided contests are causing wider concern. Former Australian captain Greg Chappell warned they could threaten Test cricket's viability.

The problem wasn't Australia's superiority, he said, but rather the inferiority of other cricket nations, often resulting from poor junior development. "It's starting to hurt the game in gate receipts and sponsorship around the world, and in long term it will hurt game in television rights for Test cricket," he said Friday.

"Once that happens, the players' pockets will be affected, too. And so on. Cricket in some countries will go broke. "International cricket is facing one of the greatest challenges of its relatively short history and, while nobody wants to talk about it aloud, a lot of administrators are really concerned."

Chappell said Pakistan would be more competitive in coming one-day matches. If there are seats unsold Sunday, it will be first time in seven years that opening day of new year Test at SCG has not had a capacity crowd - apart from three years ago, when effects of bush fires kept people away.

Channel Nine Friday said that it would wait until "11th hour" Sunday in the hope that a sell-out would enable it to televise the play in Sydney. -PPI