Adam Gilchrist believes Twenty20 cricket can breathe new life into the sport, provided it is included as an Olympic sport.

Gilchrist, who led the Deccan Chargers to the Indian Premier League title recently, believes the International Cricket Council should speed up things to include the shortest version of the game in the Olympics.

"We must actively pursue Twenty20's inclusion as an Olympic sport," Gilchrist told the audience at Lord's for his MCC Spirit of Cricket Cowdrey lecture.

The Cowdrey Lecture was inaugurated in 2001 in memory of the late Lord Cowdrey of Tonbridge, a past President of MCC, who together with another former Club President, Ted Dexter was instrumental in the Spirit of Cricket being included as the Preamble to the 2000 Code of the Laws of Cricket.

"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.