Dubai is a shrewd choice of base for Andrew Flintoff

As Andrew Flintoff languishes in self-imposed exile in Dubai nursing his troublesome knee, his decision to turn down a contract with the England team may have changed the cricketing map for good - with some observers suggesting it heralds the demise of the Test match game and international cricket as we know it.

By choosing not to align himself with his national team, Flintoff has essentially acquired the status of freelance superstar cricketer and, fitness permitting, will be able to spend the final years of his career plying his trade and lining his pockets in the world's lucrative Twenty20 leagues.

He cites the ECB's terms and conditions in turning down the offer of an 'incremental' (essentially a one-day) contract - worth a rather paltry £27,000 a year. His agent Andrew Chandler says the ECB deal would have led to conflicts over sponsorships and would have prevented Flintoff from participating in dangerous sports - announcing "he's possibly doing a television series in which he may do bungee-jumping".

And although Flintoff insists he will make England his priority, it will obviously be on his own terms. "At this stage of my career I don't think I need to be told when to play and when to rest," he said - although what the Chennai Super Kings, Flintoff's team in the Indian Premier League, will make of that remains to be seen.

His choice of the opulent Arab state as his base for the next few months is also telling. Dubai, where drinking is not allowed except in hotel bars, is a long way from the beery culture of English cricket. It is as far removed from Flintoff's roots as the county championship is from the IPL.

Flintoff is a man who has found himself in trouble for drink-related incidents during his career, most notably when he had to be rescued from a pedalo in the Caribbean in 2007 - so a period of abstention in Dubai may suit him nicely.

If Flintoff does make a success of his newfound status it is hard not to imagine the likes of Kevin Pietersen, no stranger to the high life, following suit. Players like Chris Gayle from smaller nations such as the West Indies are bound to be tempted to do the same, as the rewards for representing their country are far less than those on offer in national leagues.

What is unclear is whether Flintoff and his ilk can maintain their selling power as they drift away from the international scene, or if the international game will suffer because of a lack of stars. There is also the danger that the apparently mercenary nature of these sportsmen will undermine their popularity with cricket fans, who have a very different set of values to football followers.

But Stephen Brenkley in the Independent believes that if players follow Flintoff's lead it "will cause the dilution of Test and one-day cricket between countries if top players are unavailable, which would in turn lead to a slow, lingering but inevitable death as fans and sponsors turn away."

Whatever the future holds for Flintoff - and he is still so important to England that they have flown a physiotherapist out to Dubai to oversee his convalescence - he has opened Pandora's Box.