Most people packing their bags for a trip to Spain's Costa Del Sol would take suntan oil, swimming costumes, a beach umbrella and perhaps a good paperback.

But a new breed of travellers has upended tradition and brought a completely different set of summer gear with them. I'm talking cricket bats, pads and Kookaburra cricket balls.

These new sun-worshippers on the shores of the Mediterranean are the players and officials of the inaugural European Cricket Championships – ‘the other Euros' as the commentators like to quip.

Played at the picturesque Cartama Oval in Malaga, the tournament comprises 15 European nations competing in a ten overs per side format. There are three groups of five teams, each group playing all their fixtures in one week. The top two sides from each group qualify for the final round of matches in week four.

The groupings make for some interesting match-ups. The first match I caught was a Nordic derby between Sweden and Norway. Austria and Germany featured in a Central European showdown.

The T10 format works well in that it allows for a lot of matches to be played, and as a spectator, given the sometimes borderline quality of the play, the small doses of action are about as much as you want to see.

I've figured that the dimensions of Cartama Oval are on the small side. Most shots, if not caught in the outfield, are either a boundary or a single so it is fair to say there is plenty of action. The Netherlands managed a score of 1 for 200 off their 10 overs in a group B game against Romania.

As per any tournament of this nature there is a smattering of non-athletic physiques, dodgy bowling actions and more than one bumbling fielding mishap, but there is also a streak of fierce competition.

I saw one bowler giving a batsman a send-off and a batsman hurling his bat into his team's tent after he got out. I also assume that Finland fielding a nine-man slips cauldron against England was a form of intense intimidation.

Then there are the personalities. The Czech Republic's Sudesh Wickramasekara is known as ‘The Beast' for his aggressive stroke-play. Romania's 42-year old trundler, Pavel Florin, who was a minor internet sensation a few years back is still playing and celebrated in spectacular style when he hit his first boundary of the championships.

The highlight of the tournament was Italy's victory over the previously unbeaten England. Italy came into the match having lost all four of their games and when Baljit Singh hit the winning runs with four balls to spare, there were celebrations all round.

For mine, it's the quality production that makes the European Cricket Championships so much fun to watch. There are plenty of camera angles including a mobile camera that catches the batters as they trudge off and follow them to their team's tent to capture any possible meltdown.

The TV commentary team have hit on just the right blend of earnestness and hilarity that makes up for many of the stumbles out in the middle of Cartama Oval. One of the commentators gets a decent Spanish inflection going on that would give South American football commentators a good run.

My favourite line, that somehow encapsulates the whole mood of the European Cricket Championships, was when a fielder went to find a ball that had been struck over the boundary and come to rest in the thick pampas grass adjoining the oval. The commentator's exhortation to the fielder was to leave such balls as ‘souvenirs for snakes.'

The final round featuring Austria, Spain, Belgium, The Netherlands, England and Italy commences on 4 October and can be seen on Fox Sports Channel 507 in Australia. Check it out. It will put a smile on your face if nothing else.