Cricket is constantly having to come up with innovations and gimmicks to keep the public coming through the turnstyles.

These changes are often met with cynicism by many cricket-watching folk who hark back to the 'golden age' of cricket in the Fifties when no publicity devices were needed to ensure an enjoyable day's play.

It was with much interest, then, that I attended the Zone 6 City Challenge at Edgbaston this week.

The Zone 6 tournament is a concept devised in New Zealand (there called 'max' cricket) but organised and marketed over here by the PCA, the players union.

The cricket is played between teams of eight and the country was split into six cities. I was to play for Southampton. Our first game was against London and the second against Leeds, you get the idea.

Games last eight overs per innings and if you bowl, you are not allowed to bat and vice-versa.

This might seem strange but batsmen only lose five runs when they are out. They don't have to physically walk off the park unless they are substituted by their captain. This means the public get a chance to see two star batsmen play a considerable innings, even if they are out first ball.

Thus, last Friday, the Birmingham people were treated to magnificent strokeplay from such players as Graeme Hick, Aravinda De Silva (somehow playing for Leeds!), Stuart Law and Matthew Maynard.

The two other Sussex representatives, Murray Goodwin and Richard Montgomerie, didn't quite take to the new format and were unfortunately substituted before they really had a chance to shine.

Monty looked particularly gutted as he knew that he wasn't allowed to bowl and so couldn't make up for his lack of runs with a wicket or two with his canny off-spin.

The main innovation, however, is the introduction of six zones around the ground (hence zone 6!) into which, if the ball is hit, the batsmen scores double the amount of runs.

The zones (mini rugby posts either side of a net) are placed at mid-on and mid-off, fine leg and third man, and square on to the wicket at cover and square leg.

This was the most interesting novelty and certainly the one that the public seemed to care about the most.

It made for some attractive batting as players tried to hit every ball into the zones. Because of the areas the zones are located, they encourage straight hitting and proper shots (hence yours truly didn't manage to hit them once in his eight-over innings!).

Will this concept work and become a regular part of the professional cricket calendar?

I would like to think, yes. It has all the right ingredients for an excellent day's cricket. If enough prize money was at stake for the players to take it seriously (not the case last Friday) I could see it becoming a viable alternative to the 20-over thrash-arounds we will be taking part in next year (although it is too early to judge those games as we haven't played any of them yet).

It was unfortunate that the PCA were limited to choosing last Friday as the only possible date when most players wouldn't have other county commitments.

England's exit from the World Cup at the hands of Brazil that morning must have put a dampener on things and I'm sure many people decided they had had enough of sport that day, but even so the turn out was disappointing.

Very few adults and a handful of schoolchildren did their best to make some atmosphere in the cavernous Edgbaston stadium.

But even though the Zone 6 contains some clever and unique features, it is still just cricket and if the idea of a bowler bowling to a batsman does not float your boat, then you are not going to pay to watch it, however well it is dressed up.

Thursday June 27