Australian captain Ricky Ponting and leg-spin legend Shane Warne expect more cricketers to follow high profile all-rounders Andrew Flintoff and Andrew Symonds in going freelance.

Injury-prone Flintoff, who retired from Test cricket after England’s Ashes triumph last month to focus on one-dayers and Twenty20, has rejected an incremental contract with his country.

He is set to follow Symonds, who is considering Twenty20 options around the world after his national career stalled because of disciplinary issues.

Flintoff has reportedly been the target of interest from South Australia and Northerns in South Africa.

Ponting said while he did not know the reasons behind Flintoff’s decision, he expected other players to go down that road.

“It probably could happen more and more, especially with guys retiring from Test match cricket and wanting to play only the shorter versions of the game,” Ponting said.

“You can’t begrudge the players for doing that, especially someone like Flintoff who’s played 70-odd Test matches and it’s his body that’s basically forced him into retirement from Test cricket anyway.

“So the shorter versions of the game is what he has right now and Andrew Symonds is probably in exactly the same boat.

“It’s inevitable that it’s going to happen.”

Warne said he had spoken to Flintoff about his playing future while in England to watch the Ashes series.

“The number one priority should always be to play for your country … but now there are other opportunities for players,” Warne said.

“It could be (an option) if you’ve achieved what you wanted to achieve in international cricket.

“Andrew Flintoff – his body was telling him `I just can’t go on’.

“He knows now his body can’t get through Test match cricket.”

Because of his retirement from Test cricket, Flintoff was only available for an incremental England contract, worth some STG30,000 ($A57,240), rather than the more lucrative central contract.

While stressing he remained committed to Lancashire and England, Flintoff said in a statement: “I said when I retired from Test cricket my ambition was to become the best one-day and Twenty20 player in the world and playing in all these different countries can only help.”

But the move has raised questions over Flintoff’s commitment to England.

Ponting said it would be interesting to see whether England continued to select Flintoff once he recovers from knee surgery.

“Individual players are going to be making up their mind if they want to continue playing Test cricket and representing their country all the time or if they’re going to go and play in these other tournaments, so it will happen,” he said.

“If he’s not playing Test cricket for England any more, he was only going to get a few one-day games and a few Twenty20 games so his contract couldn’t have been too much.”

An England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) spokesman said it was too early to comment.

Earlier this year, Flintoff played for Chennai Super Kings in the Indian Premier League and he has the required no-objection certificate (NOC) from the ECB for 2010.

Under IPL rules, he would still have to cut short his stay if called up for England duty and he would need another NOC to participate in the competition in 2011.

© AAP 2012

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