Andrew Flintoff's retirement could afford a glimpse into cricket's future

The world's best players may follow Andrew Flintoff's example, retire early from Tests and focus on Twenty20 competitions

Andrew Flintoff announced his retirement from Test cricket this week and that could lead to other players following suit. Photograph: Hamish Blair/Getty Images

We can quibble about the timing of Andrew Flintoff's retirement announcement, but not with the reasoning behind it.

There is only so much rehab a man can do, only so many injections before a pin-cushioned body threatens to rebel for good. Occasionally the mind goes first, which was the case with Nasser Hussain, but more often, especially for those whose game is based less upon finesse than driving a reluctant torso to the limit, the natural urge to listen to the body is overwhelming.

On the day Flintoff announced his retirement I bumped into Simon Halliday, the England centre who retired from international rugby in 1992. "I just knew when it was time to go," he said. "England had just won two Five Nations Championships and played in the World Cup final. There was a tour of South Africa coming up and the management urged me to keep going. But I knew my body could not do it." However sophisticated the medics, it is easier to find the truth from inside the body than without.

So there is no question of Flintoff shunning the hard graft in a dereliction of his national service. He has done his bit. And maybe, just maybe, he will become one of the most formidable one-day cricketers in the world once he recovers from his Ashes labours.

But Flintoff's decision to forsake Test cricket for the one-day game is the latest and brightest signal of the shape of things to come. Until the last couple of years the accepted course among cricketers has been to give up the one-day game to prolong their Test careers. This route was taken by so many prominent players: Shane Warne, Steve Waugh, Michael Vaughan, Hussain and, for a while, Steve Harmison.