A golden prize awaits the winner of this summer's Shell Cup series.

A four-nation tournament involving the winners of the domestic one-day competitions in Australia, South Africa, India and New Zealand is to be played in Perth in April.

Details of the competition, its funding, its coverage and its timing, are still to be finalised but it will be a round-robin tournament with a final.

New Zealand Cricket (NZC) operations manager John Reid said the invitation was received from Australia about a month ago and all New Zealand's provincial associations have been canvassed to assess their interest.

Reid said there has been interest in the staging of a world provincial championship for some time and this may prove a forerunner to that competition.

"The plan is a little in its infancy at the moment and there are several issues to be worked through. Whether it would always be played in Australia is just one of them, marketing and television sales are others," Reid said.

"New Zealand Cricket is very positive about the tournament.

"It would be a real incentive for our players to win our domestic championship. For many in the winning team it would be their first chance to go overseas to play and that is great.

"It will be a fillip for provincial cricket," he said.

Auckland Cricket Association chief executive Lindsay Crocker said: "This is a concept we have been working on for some time. Whilst we are disappointed our scheme didn't come off we are delighted to support a very similar version to come out of Perth.

"We hope it is a sustainable competition. It needs to be an annual thing rather than a one-off," he said.

Canterbury Cricket sees the tournament as a "fantastic opportunity."

Chief executive Tony Murdoch said: "This is something Canterbury has wanted for a long time.

"If it is the forerunner to a Super 12 rugby-type concept that would be good. But if it is the forerunner to a world provincial championship then that is even better.

"If it is on the shoulders of the domestic season, and if it is played offshore then so be it," he said.

Murdoch said Canterbury had lobbied NZC for some time for something like the proposed Perth tournament.

"But there always seemed to be programming difficulties. Then last year former Indian player Ravi Shastri was taking questions during a break in television coverage of New Zealand's tour in India and two or three times he had questions about domestic cricket in India.

"He made the point that it was always struggling and discussed it with Geoffrey Boycott who said domestic cricket was struggling all around the world," Murdoch said.

If the Perth tournament was a move to lifting the profile of domestic cricket, it was to be commended, he added.

Central Districts' (CD) chief executive Blair Furlong confirmed CD's interest in taking part saying it would be a real boost for players in his region to try to break Canterbury's dominance of the one-day game in New Zealand.

Northern Districts coach Chris Kuggeleijn said: "It is a great idea and deserves support. It is tremendously innovative and is another incentive to win the Shell Cup."

Otago chief executive Graeme Elliott thought the idea was a "very positive" one.

"We see it as a real positive for domestic cricket. Our only concern is that it is a long time after our Shell Cup final. But we would overcome that somehow. Another thing is that it doesn't interfere with any other cricket," he said.

Wellington executive director Ervin McSweeney was unavailable for comment today.

© CricInfo