If Andrew Flintoff was devastated to be giving up Test cricket, he did not show it at his press conferences at Lord's on Wednesday. He looked more like a man resigned to his fate. This may be because he came to the decision that the Ashes would be his final Test series several months ago. The way his right knee flared up after he had bowled 35 overs in three days (hardly a huge workload) in Cardiff only confirmed to him what he had already suspected - that four- and five-day cricket was beyond him on a long-term basis.

But he may also have not looked devastated because he is now free to earn more over the next year than he has ever earned in any 12-month period before. Freed from the time-consuming and physically crucifying demands of Test cricket, he can now really cash in on cricket's riches.

Flintoff is already a walking billboard for advertisers and his message to them was clear and encouraging. In effect he said: "I'm not going anywhere. I intend to play all forms of limited-overs cricket for the forseeable future. Keep on endorsing me." A new book due for publication at the end of the season should sell like hotcakes whatever the outcome of the Ashes.

He even kept a straight face when he said he intended to play on not only to the 2011 World Cup but also the 2015 tournament in Australasia. He will be 37 years old by then. He'll be old enough to have his own chat-show.

Even if Flintoff now surrenders his full England contract - worth about a base £175,000 - all sorts of lucrative opportunities become available that will see his earnings rise. At least they will if Flintoff turns down all forms of England contract when the next batch come up for review in September.

At the moment, Flintoff is on a full England contract but obviously the ECB will be looking to downgrade this after he retires from Tests. This is perfectly reasonable if they want him to make himself available for all 50-overs and 20-overs internationals.

But the ECB might be disappointed. Flintoff may well want the freedom to come and go as he pleases.

He already has an offer to play four weeks of Twenty20 state cricket in Australia next winter with Queensland - matches that clash with England's Tests in South Africa - and next March he will certainly want to be playing a full Indian Premier League season, for which he has a record deal worth £1.1m, rather than turning out in England's scheduled three one-dayers in Bangladesh. There's more chance of him being spotted on another pedalo than in Chittagong.

He will want to return to the England fold for the world Twenty20 that follows in the Caribbean before joining Lancashire for the new-fangled P20 county competition. He is in the last year of his contract with Lancashire in 2010, so don't rule out a switch of clubs if the money's right.

He's about to play so much Twenty20 cricket that perhaps England should consider appointing him their Twenty20 captain. As he said, he now wants to make himself one of the best limited-overs players in the world.

Panesar could soon feel cricket's ingratitude

Monty Panesar certainly did his bit to save the Cardiff Test match. By batting through the final 37 minutes - only one or two of which were spent talking to the 12th man and the physio - the much-mocked No 11 showed that he has a very decent forward defensive as well as a cool head. But it was considered unlikely to spare him the axe come the second Test at Lord's today.