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International Cricket

Adam Gilchrist has implored cricket's top brass to do all they can to fast-track Twenty20 as an Olympic sport.

Australia's greatest wicketkeeper-batsman is convinced that Twenty20 can continue to breathe new life into the sport - as well as provide an unprecedented opportunity for the International Cricket Council to broaden their boundaries.

Key to that, he told the Lord's audience for his MCC Spirit of Cricket Cowdrey Lecture, is a concerted attempt to court the attentions of the International Olympic Committee.

Gilchrist, who retired from international cricket early last year but has since led the Deccan Chargers to the 2009 Indian Premier League title, has long been a champion - among a chorus of others in a golden generation of Australian players - of Twenty20 as an Olympic sport.

But the 37-year-old upped the ante on Wednesday when he made the issue the central thrust of his lecture to an audience of cricket's great and good.

"We must actively pursue Twenty20's inclusion as an Olympic sport," he said.

"It is a great challenge, but what a great and worthwhile challenge.

"It would be difficult to see a better or more effective way to spread the game throughout the world."

Gilchrist believes the IOC, as well as cricket, can only benefit because of the huge potential for new Olympic interest and participation this sport can generate in the Indian sub-continent - traditionally a largely fallow ground for aspirant medallists.

"What better way for the IOC to spread the Olympic brand and ideals than on the back of Twenty20 cricket?" he asked.

"If it became an Olympic sport, many countries would be playing cricket for the first time in their history.

"It should sit at the heart of the ICC's global strategy. In my opinion, every cricket administrator should promote Olympic ambition for our sport."

Gilchrist is known as a traditionalist in the way he played through a hugely successful 16-year first-class career - and he does not advocate Twenty20 as a replacement for five-day cricket, which he insists remains the pinnacle.

Tests still at top

"Test cricket will always remain completely inaccessible to those who are unfamiliar with it," he noted, on the eve of one of the most eagerly-awaited series of recent times - this summer's Ashes.

"To preserve its future, we must make less more. We should go back to the future, with fewer Test matches but more important ones.

"Twenty20 cricket will never ever be or should it attempt to be Test cricket.

"But as members of the international cricket community, the most important thing is to approach any new development as an opportunity rather than a problem."