If Bellerive Oval could only attract 15,343 across three days to watch the likes of Faf du Plessis, Hashim Amla, Jean-Paul Duminy, Quinton de Kock and Vernon Philander for its last top-flight contest, the chances of Kabul's finest testing the ground capacity don't look good.

Even the Big Bash League familiarity of Rashid Khan, Zahir Khan, Mohammad Nabi and former Hobart Hurricane Qais Ahmad is unlikely to save the day when Test cricket finally returns to our shores in November.

And while it would be lovely to think the Tim Paine factor might play a part, it's worth remembering that few spectators bothered for Ricky Ponting's last home Test match at the same venue in 2011 or when he contributed nearly 300 runs as captain the year before.

The omens do not look good either from a city, state or national perspective.

Crowds for sporting events in Hobart have been concerningly low for a long time.

Five times in the last five years, AFL attendances have been below 9000 while this has never happened in 74 games in Launceston.

The lowest of them all barely broke 6000 for the visit of runaway leader Melbourne earlier this month while, just two weeks later, UTAS Stadium attracted 3000 more for the meeting of the competition's worst two teams.

Amid record AFL crowd figures across the nation in 2019, Bellerive Oval's average fell below five figures for the first time since it began hosting matches in 2012.

Australia's infatuation with the BBL has helped buck the trend but even in that competition an elimination final in 2020 barely broke 11,000 while it has become commonplace for the Hobart Hurricanes to draw their largest home crowd in Launceston.

Attendances for international cricket, particularly Test matches, have been so dire that renowned ABC commentator Jim Maxwell virtually cannot visit without being interviewed about it by Tasmanian media.

Even the oldest of enemies (England) in the sexiest of formats (Twenty20) couldn't break five figures when a crowd of 9958 watched Tasmania's sole taste of international cricket for the 2018 summer.

Nationally, crowd figures have taken a huge hit which cannot entirely be blamed on the COVID-19 restrictions.

Last week, Hawthorn could only draw 15,277 to the MCG, which is below the club's average Launceston crowd for 12 of its 20 seasons here.

Richmond Tigers - the best team in the land, indeed world, who also boast the undoubted best player - performed in front of just 18,798 people against traditional crowd-pushers Greater Western Sydney on Saturday.

Meanwhile, in the first eight rounds of the season, 737,000 fewer people have attended the footy compared to 2019 - although it is worth mentioning that two games were played without fans, several others in front of 50 per cent capacity crowds and limits remain at many venues.

Cricket Australia is yet to confirm the November Test match against Afghanistan but it has been widely speculated for much of the year and was reported across the Australian media last week as a one-off contest ahead of the five-match Ashes series at the traditional big five venues.

With just four international cricket fixtures held in Tasmania since the 2015 World Cup, the prospect prompted considerable statewide debate, not least from Luke Martin whose various titles include Tourism Industry Council of Tasmania chief executive and The Voice of Reason on Such Matters.

"The reality is we shouldn't expect it any more," Martin said in The Examiner.

"No excuse - we need to show up and support it. We can't whinge about being left off the calendar and not support the Test.

"I think it's a patriotic duty for Tim Paine and the cause of Test match cricket in Tasmania that we show up."

No sitting on the picket fence from Luke.

"We've got this opportunity to really send a message," he added.

"The challenge, unashamedly, for Tasmanians is to make sure it's not another five years or longer until we next get one and the best way we can do that is to show up en masse."

With these comments, Martin convinced me not only that he should be our next Premier, but that there is an alternative to the Doomsday scenario slated in the first paragraph.

Instead of turning their backs on elite sport, Tasmanians could turn up in force, present an irrefutable case for the state to return to the regular Test schedule and we all live happily ever after.

Fairytales do come true sometimes.