Chelmsford would remain the home ground for Essex's County Championship matches but the club are keen to explore the possibility of playing Twenty20 cricket at the Stratford venue.

Essex CCC chief executive David East said: "We are very much looking forward to exploring this with Newham and West Ham.

"Our home ground will remain at the Ford County Ground in Chelmsford, but it would be fantastic to be able to play some of our expanded Twenty20 cricket tournament at the Olympic Stadium.

"We have a very active development programme in the East End of London, and this would give us an ideal opportunity to extend our community work even further with a centre of excellence in the Borough."

East has discussed how such a joint bid might work with representatives of West Ham and the Council.

If viable, the bid will be submitted to the Olympic Park Legacy Company (OPLC), who are inviting proposals for the Stadium's use after the Games.

Twenty20 cricket is credited with revolutionising cricket around the world since it made its debut in England in 2003.

Essex, whose limited overs team are known as the Eagles, reached the finals of the Twenty20 tournament in 2008, a season notable for an incredible innings by Graham Napier, who hit a world record 16 sixes in a knock of 152 not out off just 58 balls against Sussex at Chelmsford

Last year the London Development Agency (LDA) contacted the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) along with two unknown Counties to consider using the venue for Twenty20 matches.

In a statement at the time, the LDA said it had "engaged with two professional cricket clubs and the national governing body of the sport to explore opportunities for professional cricket to be played in the legacy Stadium post-2012."

East said: "It is purely a feasibility study at this stage as far as cricket's concerned.

"We're delighted to be working with Newham to see whether cricket actually can take place in there.

"Obviously there are some reasonably substantive issues concerning the pitch, what pitch you would play on, and that's going to be part of the investigation that we work on.

"It's very, very early days.

"We've got to go through all of those operational, logistical exercises to see whether this is actually a goer.

"We may go through this exercise and work out cricket can't be played in there but we're going to explore it with them and it's a very exciting opportunity if it is feasible."


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