Quote:[size=12pt]Australia's most prized cricketers have been offered multi-year deals in an urgent shake-up of Cricket Australia's contracting system brought on by fears of a raid on its players by rebel suitors.

Cricket Australia's 19 centrally contracted players for the 2015-16 contract period were last week told of their retainer and their ranking, with captain-in-waiting and Allan Border Medal winner Steve Smith predictably rising to the top of the charts on a retainer of more than $2 million a year.

David Warner is next on the salary list, moving up a spot from last year, followed by Mitchell Johnson, Mitchell Starc and Test captain Michael Clarke, who drops from No.1 but holds on to a top-five rating despite retiring from one-day cricket after Australia's World Cup triumph.

The pay rankings, determined according to players' performances across three formats but heavily weighted towards Tests, are an annual fascination at this time of year and a talking point among the squad itself.
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However, there is a new flavour to the contracting period with up to a dozen two-year offers - rather than what has become the standard one-year contract - going out in direct response to the emergence of Indian media giant Essel Group and its plans to poach players for a new, anti-establishment cricket body. [/size]