Paul Colingwood leads England into tonight's Twenty20 international against New Zealand at Old Trafford appealing to the game's bosses to "let Test cricket live".

If anyone was in any doubt about the threat to the five-day game then Collingwood's commendably honest inability to choose outright between either winning back the Ashes next summer or winning this November's £10million challenge match in Antigua should clarify matters.

Collingwood was on centre stage during the most joyous day in recent English cricket history as a member of Michael Vaughan's team that regained the urn at The Oval in 2005 to the delight of an entire nation.

Yet, less than three years later, Twenty20 cricket is offering riches great enough to leave England's one-day captain wanting the best of both worlds.

"It's a difficult one to say, a really difficult question," said Collingwood when asked whether he would rather beat Australia over five Tests or the Stanford Super Stars in three hours.

"I've grown up wanting to win the Ashes and I can honestly say I want to regain them again. But in the end you do want to win this one-off game as well. It's a massive incentive."

The full house crowd tonight should know enough about Collingwood the fierce competitor and patriotic Englishman to appreciate he will be just as desperate to defeat the Kiwis - even though the prize money for success at Old Trafford amounts to about £500 per player - as to win any other match.

But International Cricket Council officials would do well to listen to his plea to restore Test cricket to something like a level playing fielding.

"We've got to be careful, from the ICC's point of view, to somehow get Test cricket as lucrative [as the big Twenty20 games] because the maths don't add up at the moment," said Collingwood.

"You play Twenty20 and it gets all this money and when you're playing Test cricket you get hardly a fraction of it. The ICC have to really nail down where they want to go with the game of cricket over the next generation.

"Test cricket has got to live. We were all involved with that 2005 series - everyone was wrapped up in it and everything about it was compelling. You had to watch it. We cannot lose Test cricket.

"I don't think there's a major problem in England with regards the two forms of the game. But in world cricket the money [in Tests] has to get closer to Twenty20 or people growing up are just going to want to play Twenty20, and that's the scary thing about it.

"People will say, 'Do I want to be on a pitch for five days - be away for four months on an Ashes tour - or should I just go and play one-off games for £10m?' There is no question what direction they would go in."

Collingwood admitted feeling slightly uncomfortable about playing purely for cash, which will be the case in Antigua.

"It would have been nice to have shared the pot, to be honest," said the 32-year-old before admitting: "I'm not going to turn the money down, obviously.

"But I grew up wanting to win the Ashes and win the World Cup, so it's a difficult one because we are going into the unknown in many ways."

Beating New Zealand tonight will barely cause a flicker of interest around the world.

But a good result for Collingwood's team will put the XI on duty at Old Trafford one step nearer to a potential £500,000-per-man pay day in Antigua. Not a bad incentive.