Flintoff could earn 18 m pounds over next 5 years

All-rounder Andrew Flintoff could earn an astonishing 18 million pounds in the next five years as a globetrotting all-rounder for hire.

He will make almost 1.5 million pounds a year from playing cricket and also rake in at least two million pounds a year on top of that from sponsorship and off-field activities.

Flintoff's biggest income will come from the Indian Premier League.

He intends to play in the full six-week campaign in March and April and will receive his full auction price of 1.55 million pounds  - the joint highest with Kevin Pietersen.

He has been in talks with South Australia and Nashua Titans in South Africa, who both want to sign Freddie for their domestic Twenty20 events.

They will be worth at least 250,000 pounds - with Freddie's salary supplemented by sponsorship deals. But he might have to wait until the winter of 2010-11 until he is fit enough to appear in those tournaments.

Flintoff, 31, wants to play for England in the one-dayers in Bangladesh in February as well as the World Twenty20 in the Windies in April.

He can then expect to earn 300,000 pounds during the 2010 English domestic season when he will play for Lancashire and in 13 one-dayers for England against Bangladesh, Australia and Pakistan.

There are also two Twenty20s against Pakistan.

But his on-field earnings are small compared with his deals with Puma, Sure, Red Bull, Volkswagen and Barclays Capital, which bring in two million pounds a year.

He is also being lined up for an action TV show involving a bungee jump - not permitted under his ECB contract.

The reason behind Flintoff's snub was adventure sport

Greed was not behind Andrew Flintoff's snub to ECB contract but his ambition to try adventure sport, according to his agent.

According to Flintoff's agent the burly all-rounder is likely to appear in an adventure show on TV where he may go for bungee-jumping and the national contract with cricket board does not permit that. 

"I've seen reports he's a mercenary – he's nothing of the sort. There were one or two things in it that made it difficult to sign. Like he wouldn't be allowed to participate in dangerous sports and he's possibly doing a television series in which he may do bungee-jumping," Andrew Chandler told BBC.

The agent insisted that his client was not rapacious but the money offered by the ECB was too meagre.