England's Test series against South Africa next month can launch players like Kevin Pietersen on a multi-million pound journey that would have been beyond their wildest dreams only 12 months ago.

Pietersen and company will share up to £2million if they sweep all before them - including Australia - over the next year, thanks to a new, improved England Cricket Board bonus scheme designed to reassure players that five-day cricket will not be left behind, at least in this country, when it comes to big money.

By next week, at the latest, final details of the Stanford Challenge matches should be announced, including confirmation that November's first game, in Antigua, will be worth £10m.

Before that unique contest takes place, England players will have the chance to help their counties qualify for, and then take part in, a new Champions League Twenty20 event, which will pay out £2.5m to the winners in October.

And while Pietersen and international team-mates like Andrew Flintoff will be restricted to little more than cameo roles in next year's Indian Premier League, their long-term earning potential in the competition remains huge. Pietersen, for example, is said to have been offered a three-year deal worth £2m.

All this comes on top of salaries and appearance money, which for a senior England contracted player picked for all forms of the game is above £300,000 per year.

Apart from IPL contracts, though, picking up the really big cheques will depend on winning and, having dispatched New Zealand 2-0, that is likely to get a lot harder over the next year. Captain Michael Vaughan and coach Peter Moores accept that the four-match series against South Africa is the "ultimate challenge" this summer.

After that there are two pre-Christmas Tests in India, against the world's secondranked side, a series in the West Indies, where standards seem to be on the rise again, and then - after an early summer warm-up - the Ashes.

England will need to win all those series to claim the full £2m bonus, which looks almost as tall an order as scooping the lottery. But there are incentives for each series victory with the size of the bonus having been almost trebled.

"The game has changed in terms of remuneration and opportunities for players beyond all recognition over the last nine months, and I would argue for the better" said ECB chairman Giles Clarke. "It must be right that our players can receive significant rewards if they are successful, but it's a path we need to go down with care.

"We're going to need to ensure that if we have players who are pure Test specialists they are also rewarded, and we're in a position to enhance the opportunities for our Test side."

Having won four of their past five Tests, and fielded the same side in all of those matches, England are clearly making progress. But New Zealand have not made life too difficult for them and both Paul Collingwood and Ian Bell are on thin ice after missing out too many times.

The good news for the troubled middle order pair is that a Twenty20 game and five full internationals against New Zealand over the next three weeks will give them chances to hit their way back into form. But, less comforting, leading Test batting candidates Ravi Bopara and Owais Shah are with them in the limited-overs squad and could come up with the eye-catching innings.

Then, of course, there is Flintoff. But for a side strain, he would have played in the summer's First Test at Lord's as a bowler, batting at No7. By the time the South Africans start their series at the same ground on 10 July, Flintoff should be back in the frame and this time he may be pushing for his old all-rounder's spot at No6.

Flintoff hardly scored a run for Lancashire before his body let him down. But Collingwood (32 runs against New Zealand) and Bell (45) have been anything but prolific.

Vaughan has already said he cannot wait to have Flintoff back in his squad. Moores, however, is keeping his options open about which role would be best for the all-rounder after his careerthreatening ankle injuries.

"The nice thing is to have some permutations," said the coach. " Historically we have played four seamers when 'Fred' was there. We've got two ways of looking at it and both are decent arguments. We'll see who's fit and who is playing well."

Before the Test series against South Africa, though, England are expecting a backlash from the Kiwis.

"I think New Zealand will come really hard at us in the one-dayers," said Moores. "They pride themselves on being a very good one-day side and they'll really want to bounce back from the Tests."

England won both Twenty20 matches in New Zealand earlier this year but lost the 50-over games 3-1. "We'll have to play very well to win this series," added Moores.