Former England captain Nasser Hussain says the Champions League riches will create a massive interest in the game.

"Sport is better when there is something big hanging on the outcome. The higher the stakes, the more intense the pressure and the more the character of the players is revealed," Hussain wrote in his column for the Daily Mail.

"The winners of the cup, which starts tomorrow, get something like £40,000 but the two counties who reach the final will have the chance to earn £2.4million from the Champions League, so can you imagine the atmosphere if a team need four from the last ball in one of those semi-finals?

"What we will see is the cricketing equivalent of the football play-off final, with the winners going to the Premier League."

The previously unheard of money on offer in the Champions League, Indian Premier League and the mooted Stanford Twenty20 matches has prompted fears that world cricket's focus could be shifted from the Test game.

In particular, it has been suggested that players could shun national teams in order to make their fortune in the shortest form of the game, but Hussain does not subscribe to that scenario.

"I can see people turning down central contracts and, in effect, going freelance to play where the best money is on offer at any one time," he added.

"Take someone like Kevin Pietersen. I am not suggesting he has any plans to turn down a contract with England but he knows England would always want him to play for them so, in theory, he could make himself available on a match-by-match basis while earning big sums in the Indian Premier League and wherever else he wanted to go."

Hussain added: "Yes, there are concerns about the first-class game but I remain convinced that Test cricket will continue to prosper, at least in this country, and be treated as the pinnacle."

Former England batsman Geoffrey Boycott has hailed the Champions League - which will feature the two best Twenty20 sides from England, India, South Africa and Australia - as a "great idea", but is concerned that the authorities are progressing without a long-term vision for the game.

In particular, Boycott fears that any attempt to have players involved in the rebel Indian Cricket League banned from the Champions League, along with any counties employing them, will be met with damaging legal action.

"Nobody knows what the rules are. They're making it up as they go along. The whole thing is like a runaway train accelerating downhill," he told the Daily Telegraph.

"You have to be careful about banning people. Don't we live in a democracy, where people are entitled to practise their trade?