The answer to the million-dollar question, according to Australian captain Steve Waugh, is Brett Lee.
Lee, the world's fastest bowler and, increasingly, the bright, fresh face of Australian cricket, is the man Waugh believes will be the first player to earn $1million a season from an Australian Cricket Board contract.
The ACB and the Australian Cricketers Association have signed a new four-year memorandum of understanding that both parties say will produce a payment of $1 million to Australia's highest-paid player within the next two years. Although, as Waugh contended yesterday, some Australian cricketers long ago topped the $1 million mark through endorsement earnings outside cricket, a seven-figure ACB contract remains a significant milestone for players and administrators alike.
"I think we've already had a couple of million-dollar men off the field. The guys are doing pretty well," Waugh said. "But Brett Lee would have to be pretty short odds, I'd think."
It is hoped the very idea of a million-dollar man will create enough excitement within the hearts of young sportsmen for them to make cricket their first-choice career sport.
While attracting players is one thing, 35-year-old Waugh does not believe the lure of big bucks will encourage cricketers to stay in the game for the money alone.
"Money shouldn't influence how long you play," he said. "If someone's playing for money their performances won't be up to the scratch, and if I'm not good enough I don't want to be there."
Just the same, he has no problems with the hard-working players receiving an increased share of the ACB's riches.
"It's obviously fair because the cricket board have agreed with the ACA. It's great that both organisations are working together," he said.
"As players we're very happy we're getting a pay increase, but with that comes more responsibility."
Waugh and eight of his teammates were in Melbourne yesterday to learn more about handling those responsibilities at a three-day leadership course at the police college. The speakers included high-profile business leaders and Lieutenant-General Peter Cosgrove of the Australian Army.
Increasingly it is responsibilities off the field that occupy the players. That's where Lee becomes such a valuable commodity for Australian cricket.
Already he is the frontman for television advertisements for one of the ACB's major sponsors, Ansett, and his endorsements outside of cricket top $1 million.
But when time permits, the man tipped to become the game's richest player still works for a modest wage selling men's suits at a shop in Sydney's Centrepoint arcade, just as he did as a 19-year-old Sheffield Shield player. It does not hurt his image that he does so out of loyalty to the employer who encouraged his fledgling cricket career.
Of Lee's teammates considered likely millionaires, vice-captain Adam Gilchrist is almost in the same league. Gilchrist already gets a bonus payment as vice-captain, and will earn another bonus should he succeed Waugh as captain.
The Australian wicketkeeper, like Lee, is a crowd-pleaser out in the middle, and, like Lee, he is a personable character with a ready smile. And Gilchrist, too, has a string of endorsement deals.
Lee, though, can enter a different sphere if he takes England by storm, much as Shane Warne did in 1993, in this year's Ashes series.
Much depends on his fitness, and in that regard Lee is looking good.
The surgery on his right elbow, which kept him out of the tour of India, was a success and his recovery is on target.
The bend in his elbow, the result of an accident five years ago, has improved from 17 degrees beyond straight to 12 degrees.
He is bowling at three-quarter pace under the eye of New South Wales team staff, and is itching to cut loose.
- MARK FULLER