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Poms' $1.5m Ashes carrot

England's cricketers have another incentive to try to wrestle back the Ashes from Australia - a $1.5 million cash bonus if they can win the five-match Test series.

The England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) has dangled the enormous carrot, and if successful, Michael Vaughan and his players and coaching staff could each pocket about $80,000 on top of their ECB contracts and match payments.

The first Test starts at Lord's on Thursday.

While team bonuses are not new, the massive incentive is one of the biggest offered to a national side.

It is 10 times the sum given to India's team from its cricket board for beating arch-rivals Pakistan in a three-Test series last year.

Cricket Australia has not offered a similar incentive, and a team spokesman said there would be no bonuses for the team even if it completed a ninth-straight Ashes series victory.

Instead Australia's motivation could come from its group of superstars, who are nearing the end of their international careers and will not tour England again.

Shane Warne and Glenn McGrath, both 35, Justin Langer, 34, and Adam Gilchrist, Matthew Hayden and Damien Martyn, all 33, would be unlikely to feature in the 2009 Ashes touring party.

Captain Ricky Ponting, 30, acknowledged the group was determined to say goodbye to England on the best possible note.

"A lot of the players know that this might be their last Ashes trip to England, that's probably going to make it a more special one for them and make them even keener to perform as well as they can. I know that would be the way they're approaching it."

While Australia could lose some of its greatest personnel after the 2007 World Cup, England expects to have its entire current team available for the next Ashes series, in Australia in 2006-07.

The average age of England's first Test team is 27, while Australia's is around the 31-year mark.

Vaughan, 30, the second-oldest team member of his team behind left-arm spinner Ashley Giles, 32, said it was a refreshing change for an England side to potentially stay together for several years.

England match-winners Andrew Flintoff and Andrew Strauss, both 28, and fast bowler Steve Harmison, 26, are all currently at the peak age for sportsmen.

"It excites me because you look at the next Ashes and every single player in our team will be available for that one," Vaughan said.