Jacques Rogge, the president of the International Olympic Committee, has given his backing to cricket making a bid to become an Olympic sport.
Rogge said he would welcome an application from the International Cricket Council, who will make a decision regarding its application this month. If successful, Twenty20 cricket could feature at the 2020 Olympics.
"The International Cricket Council will decide at the end of June whether they will make an application," Rogge, told the Evening Standard. "The incoming president might be interested. We would welcome an application. It's an important, popular sport and very powerful on television. It's a sport with a great tradition where mostly you have a respect of the ethics. In the Olympics, it will not be Test cricket, of course."
Only once before has cricket appeared in the Games – in 1900, when Britain were beaten by a France team consisting mainly of expatriates.
Rogge is a self-confessed cricket fan and has Test matches on in the background while he is in his office in Lausanne. He said: "I love the game. I have watched Sachin Tendulkar, Kevin Pietersen, Shane Warne, Ian Botham. It's tactically very interesting, a game of patience, a game of great skills and the only sport where, after five days, you can have a draw!"
In relation to the London Games, Rogge said the authorities need to be ready for illegal bookmakers targeting the event. He said: "We had monitoring in Vancouver and in Beijing and there was no sign of illegal betting in either those Games. But it would be naive to say this could not happen at the London Olympics. Of course, I am worried it could happen. We have to be ready.
"It's even worse [than doping]. Imagine a team sport with one player being doped; that one player will not make the difference to the result. But if you have match rigging with the goalkeeper being paid off and jumping over the ball, it's the whole match that is lost. So the scale is far more important in terms of match manipulation."