Rebel league could affect Test cricket - Warner

David Warner has spoken for the first time about the prospect of a "rebel" cricket league bankrolled by the Essel Group tycoon Subhash Chandra, saying the vast sums of money mooted for the signatures of the world's leading cricketers could be impossible to ignore.

Alongside Australia's captain Michael Clarke, Warner was reportedly near the top of the Essel Group's list of targets, with a story in the Sydney Morning Herald suggesting he would be in line for a contract worth $50 million over 10 years if he made the leap. While stressing his commitment to Test cricket and national duty, Warner said such figures could not simply be rejected out of hand and challenged other athletes to be honest with the public about the role financial rewards played in their thinking.

"At the moment I'm contracted to Cricket Australia, the fact is I'm playing for Australia, it's what I do, it's what I love," Warner told ESPNcricinfo. "But these guys are talking about big sums of money and, let's be honest, if people are saying to you that they don't play for the money then they're having a laugh, because every single person who gets offered this or gets offered that, what happens? They always take it. I think athletes in general have to be a bit more honest and say that's what's happening.

"This is a company that's coming in and trying to take over world cricket. At the end of the day if this company comes in and wipes out who you play for and you want to play cricket, what happens there? Who pays you? That's the thing. Ultimately we're working, we love what we do, I cherish the baggy green and if Test cricket exists I'll continue to keep playing Test cricket, because from where I've started to where I am now, I love that and I'll keep cherishing that."

The scope of Chandra's plans remains somewhat murky, from the registration of business names and online domain names for alternative boards in all cricket's major nations to less ambitious public pronouncements about an improved version of the Indian Cricket League of 2008. Warner, though, indicated that cricket's present structure may not have room to co-exist with the new venture.

"Everyone says you can't put a price on the baggy green, and you can't," he said. "But the simple thing is if the rebel league comes and takes off, I don't think there is going to be Test cricket. That's where people are going to be like 'who are these people, where is Cricket Australia going to go with this, how are we going to play every other Test nation when some of those nations are definitely going to go on board'.

"I can't talk on their behalf, but if you weigh the numbers up I think what they're talking about sum-wise it's going to be hard for a lot of the minnow countries to say no, and that's the scary thing. Then it's going to be Australia versus England versus India all the time. Cricket's in a great position at the moment. It's interesting times ahead and I think at the moment the players have got a lot to think about and a lot to weigh up."

Warner's comments could raise some eyebrows, notably in the months after Cricket Australia sought to protect their playing stocks by offering numerous players the added security of multi-year national contracts, a privilege commonly reserved for only a select few.

As of the start of Australia's tour of England, these deals were yet to be formally signed by the players ahead of the expiry date of existing contracts on June 30. The team performance manager Pat Howard has been working diligently to find out as much as he can about the Essel Group's plans.

While the current mix of ICC-sanctioned international tours and domestic Twenty20 tournaments has provided plenty of additional income streams for players, the game is entering a newly uncertain and entrepreneurial phase with a succession of new tournament concepts springing up, many under the guide of "exhibition matches" for retired cricketers.

"I consider myself lucky and others would as well, with what's going on in today's cricket," he said. "The opportunities to play three different formats of the game in 10 different countries at different times of the year is a special thing, and the rest of the world is seeing a lot more talent out there."