Former Essex and England captain Graham Gooch has backed the county cricket club's plan to share London's Olympic Stadium with West Ham football club and Newham Council after the 2012 Games are over.
Essex chief executive David East has held talks with the Premier League side and the local authority in a move Gooch believes will benefit all parties.
"I'm right behind the proposal," Gooch told Sky Sports.
"I'm a big Hammers supporter as well as an Essex supporter," the 56-year-old, one of the best opening batsmen of his generation and still England's leading Test match run-scorer, said.
"It absolutely makes sense that Essex, West Ham and Newham Council join forces to use the Olympic Stadium for sport to have a legacy for more than one sport on that stadium.
"I come from exactly that area. It would be good for sport in that area. It would raise the profile of cricket in east London, especially with the Asian population. It's a multi-dimensional, ethnic population there.
"We've raised a lot of players from there -- Varun Chopra, Nasser Hussain (another ex-England captain) and others on our staff.
"I was born in Leytonstone, Nasser Hussain was from Ilford and John Lever (the former Essex and England left-arm seamer) was from there (Stepney). A lot of our players come from that area.
"We're not talking about it being our headquarters for championship cricket -- that's at Chelmsford.
"We're talking about playing limited-overs, Twenty20 cricket there.
"The timescale for us -- June, July, August -- is when West Ham wouldn't be using the stadium," explained Gooch.
West Ham would like to move permanently to the Olympic Stadium from their existing ground at Upton Park, which is nearby the Games site, but Essex just want to use the venue in Stratford, east London, for Twenty20 matches.
"We are very much looking forward to exploring this with Newham and West Ham," East, who as a wicketkeeper played alongside Gooch in the successful Essex side of the 1980s, explained.
"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."
"Obviously there are some reasonably substantive issues concerning the pitch and that's going to be part of the investigation we work on."
Hammers vice-chairman Karren Brady said: "It's about realising the full potential of the Olympic Park.
"If achievable it is the ideal answer for those who, rightly, demand a sustainable legacy from the 2012 Games and not a white elephant."
Under current plans, the 80,000-seater Olympic Stadium is due to be reduced after the Games to a 25,000-capacity venue complete with an athletics track.
But with the stadium costing 537 million pounds (809 million dollars), there are concerns as to whether it will remain economically viable as an athletics venue alone.
Essex chief executive David East has held talks with the Premier League side and the local authority in a move Gooch believes will benefit all parties.
"I'm right behind the proposal," Gooch told Sky Sports.
"I'm a big Hammers supporter as well as an Essex supporter," the 56-year-old, one of the best opening batsmen of his generation and still England's leading Test match run-scorer, said.
"It absolutely makes sense that Essex, West Ham and Newham Council join forces to use the Olympic Stadium for sport to have a legacy for more than one sport on that stadium.
"I come from exactly that area. It would be good for sport in that area. It would raise the profile of cricket in east London, especially with the Asian population. It's a multi-dimensional, ethnic population there.
"We've raised a lot of players from there -- Varun Chopra, Nasser Hussain (another ex-England captain) and others on our staff.
"I was born in Leytonstone, Nasser Hussain was from Ilford and John Lever (the former Essex and England left-arm seamer) was from there (Stepney). A lot of our players come from that area.
"We're not talking about it being our headquarters for championship cricket -- that's at Chelmsford.
"We're talking about playing limited-overs, Twenty20 cricket there.
"The timescale for us -- June, July, August -- is when West Ham wouldn't be using the stadium," explained Gooch.
West Ham would like to move permanently to the Olympic Stadium from their existing ground at Upton Park, which is nearby the Games site, but Essex just want to use the venue in Stratford, east London, for Twenty20 matches.
"We are very much looking forward to exploring this with Newham and West Ham," East, who as a wicketkeeper played alongside Gooch in the successful Essex side of the 1980s, explained.
"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."
"Obviously there are some reasonably substantive issues concerning the pitch and that's going to be part of the investigation we work on."
Hammers vice-chairman Karren Brady said: "It's about realising the full potential of the Olympic Park.
"If achievable it is the ideal answer for those who, rightly, demand a sustainable legacy from the 2012 Games and not a white elephant."
Under current plans, the 80,000-seater Olympic Stadium is due to be reduced after the Games to a 25,000-capacity venue complete with an athletics track.
But with the stadium costing 537 million pounds (809 million dollars), there are concerns as to whether it will remain economically viable as an athletics venue alone.
© AFP
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