Cricket

Steve Waugh on Tuesday led a growing chorus of high-profile cricket voices calling for Twenty20 to become an Olympic sport, in time for the 2020 Games.

Former Australia Test captain Waugh, echoing the hopes of his one-time team-mate Adam Gilchrist and sharing the sentiments of a clutch of leading Indian players, sees Twenty20 at the Olympics as an ideal vehicle for the global spread of his sport.

Waugh, speaking in his role as mentor of the Australian Olympic team, said: "The idea of Twenty20 cricket at the Olympics is definitely worth pursuing."

He added: "If you want to globalise the game then you have to look at including countries like China and the United States, and getting cricket into the Olympics will fast-track that move."

Waugh knows from personal experience that limited-overs cricket can work at a major Games - he won Commonwealth silver with Australia in 1998 - and he expects Twenty20 could prove perfectly suited to the Olympics.

"I had the time of my life at those Games," he recalls of his experience in Kuala Lumpur a decade ago.

"Winning the silver medal was one of the highlights of my career."