It won't quite be a case of having to answer a series of cerebrally-challenging questions from Eddie McGuire. Albeit that the odds of grabbing the seven figure sum are probably about as long as they are in McGuire's TV show.

Nevertheless, the lure of a million-dollar prize will now be available to every cricketer who sets foot in the batting crease during the ING Cup competition this summer.

Working on a revision of its renowned Hit-the-Sign theme as a means of celebrating its tenth year as the sponsor of the competition, the ING insurance company is offering the new bounty to big-hitting batsmen.

The prize will be won if a player can follow up a six earlier in the same over by scoring another. However, the shot must also fulfil the rather exacting requirement of striking on the full one of four ING signs positioned beyond each ground's square boundaries.

It is understood to be the biggest official prize ever offered to cricketers for their feats in a single match.

And the potential payouts don't necessarily end there.

The regular Hit-the-Sign competition will still be a feature of ING Cup matches, tempting batsmen to hit the ball into any of eight of the sponsor's signs to win for themselves an attractively accumulating cash jackpot. That prize pool begins at $10,000, and increases by $10,000 for every match where a sign is not hit, before being capped at a maximum of $200,000.

Spectators also have an ongoing chance to partake of a slice of the action by catching any shot hit for six.

For televised matches, their prize begins at a mark of $100 and jackpots by another $100 if no such catch is taken during the course of that match. Potentially, a sum of as much as $1000 could be available to one lucky patron.

And, much like the revision to the Hit-the-Sign feature, spectators' chances of creating greater returns for themselves have been facilitated by the introduction of a so-called Catch a Six Trump Player.

Captains of the two teams involved in each match will nominate one 'Trump' batsman from each of their sides and, if a spectator completes a catch off the bat of either, a prize of $1000 will go their way.

Last season, the expansion of the domestic one-day competition's fixture list (to produce a full home-and-away format) and the introduction of a number of new rules were the key points by way of innovation. Now, the highlight comes in a reflection of the astonishing commercial growth over recent years of Australian cricket.

Earlier this year, it was revealed that the country would soon possess the first player in its history to be grossing $1,000,000 in income from the game.

Today, it has emerged that someone can even beat that player to the punch with two surgically-positioned hits.

The 2001-02 ING Cup competition begins on Sunday, when New South Wales plays host to Victoria at the Bankstown Oval in Sydney.

© 2001 CricInfo Ltd