Test cricket has an uncertain future (Photo by RODGER BOSCH/AFP via Getty Images)AFP via Getty Images

Threatened to be neglected and cast aside by the flashier and faster three-hour T20 format, the traditional five-day Test cricket has somehow survived these increasingly faster times.

It's not hard to see how Tests have endured after watching the madcap, compelling cricket played in recent weeks. There was Pakistan being Pakistan in a roller-coaster of a series that they inevitably lost to Australia, but it was mighty fun and tested the nerves - which the slow burn of Test cricket can inflict like nothing else.

While South Africa upset mighty India in a series-opening thrashing before capitulating for just 55 on day one of the second Test as wickets tumbled in a sight rarely seen in a venerable format steeped in traditions stretching nearly 150 years.

But amid all this there is a tinge of sadness as fears grow for Test cricket. The format's future has long been questioned with the advent of the 50-over cricket - played in one day - in the early 1970s supposedly signalling Test's death knell.

But Test cricket has survived even though it is expensive to stage, popularity worldwide is dwindling and it can take up to almost 40 hours to complete a match - the antithesis of an age where people have shorter attention spans.

Test cricket's situation is rapidly changing and a tipping point has seemingly been reached when South Africa - in the aftermath of their upset victory over India - announced a weakened squad to their Test tour of New Zealand.

India and South Africa played a memorable Test series (Photo by Grant Pitcher/Gallo Images/Getty ... [+] Images)Getty Images

It was essentially a B-grade squad and a punch gut for a proud cricket nation, who have been the most consistent Test team - marked by an uncompromising style of play - since their post-Apartheid readmission in 1992.

But it spoke of the growing financially realities forcing players from cash-stricken nations to choose between country or the more lucrative T20 franchise cricket. This has been happening for a while but - in a point of difference - the South African board essentially made their players commit to the second edition of its domestic T20 league, which is hoped to energize the sport in the country.

The New Zealand tour clashes with the tournament and Cricket South Africa's scrambled attempts at rescheduling the tour proved unsuccessful also underlining cricket's congested calendar. It's meant that a second-string South Africa team will front up to New Zealand in what will amount to a diminished version of Test cricket - a format that has always been put up on a pedestal.

The announcement of South Africa's squad was met with outrage around the world with legendary Australia cricketer Steve Waugh telling The Sydney Morning Herald that if I was New Zealand I wouldn’t even play the series".

"I don’t know why they’re even playing. Why would you when it shows a lack of respect for New Zealand cricket?" Waugh added.

Waugh's comments led Cricket Australia chair Mike Baird to publicly declare that the mighty countries India, England and Australia should share their wealth to ensure the survival of Test cricket.

Armed with a $6 billion deal for its money-spinning Indian Premier League, India's cash-rich board also gets almost 40% of the International Cricket Council's $3 billion broadcast deal over the next four years.

Australia and England, also boasting billion dollar broadcast deals, receive considerably less but still get the next biggest slices and much more than smaller countries like Ireland and Zimbabwe, who have miniscule television deals.

Ireland don't play a lot of Test cricket (Photo by Ishara S. KODIKARA / AFP) (Photo by ISHARA S. ... [+] KODIKARA/AFP via Getty Images)AFP via Getty Images

But Baird's comments are instructive in what is becoming a reality check that many have foreshadowed for years. Four years, I wrote about pleas from smaller nations over resurrecting a Test Match Fund - which was scrapped after just one year - and those calls have restarted but it might be too late.

These nations are now understandably focusing on the T20 format and they felt further sidelined when they weren't part of the nine-team World Test Championship - which was supposed to help add context to the format.

There have been the usual ideas thrown around. Like the push for more four-day cricket while some want a think tank formed to address the issue - unbeknown to them a working group already exists in an attempt to generate more fixtures for smaller nations.

Above all else, it boils down to funds and the reality is India - and quite possibly Australia and England - won't just dish out their funds quite so charitably. Who knows if India - a country increasingly becoming besotted by an IPL that is likely to only grow bigger - will have the appetite to play Test cricket in the future.

The IPL is big business (Photo by Robert Cianflone/Getty Images)Getty Images

It very much feels like cricket will finally head down the road of other major sports such as soccer and basketball, where domestic leagues rule bar dedicated windows for international competitions.

World Cups will remain - although question marks surround over the 50-over tournament - and prestige Test series should continue such as the cultural treasure of the Ashes between Australia and England.

Sadly Pakistan and India, the best rivalry of all, don't play each other in bilaterals in another nail for Test cricket.

The realities are undeniably grim for Test traditionalists amid this changing sport.