Darts in the Olympics. Yes, says fifteen-times World Darts champion Phil ‘The Power’ Taylor. By the summer of 2012 I am not sure if I will still be playing darts at a professional level, but I know I will be looking forward to the Olympic Games in London. And, as another world darts championship ended this week – with us gaining as much publicity as ever – the time is right for our sport to become part of the world’s greatest sports show.

We have tried so hard over the years to clean up the image of darts. If you tell people you are a professional player, and that you do not go out playing in pubs all the time, and that you are actually at home and are boring, then I am boring. The level at which darts players train and practise now is greater than ever before. There is not a day when I do not throw a dart – I am going on a cruise now that the world championship is over, but I will be taking a dart board with me. Darts has a chance of being in the Olympics. I would love to see it there and in my view it deserves its place, because more than ever the interest in darts is growing across the world. The participation levels are higher than before and there are more international tournaments than in the past.

By way of example, this year’s world championship was even shown live in Malaysia – despite it being the middle of the night.

Being part of the Olympics would be fantastic. It would be further recognition for the sport and it would get rid of the snobbery against us. In the past it was understandable why people looked down on us as a second-rate sport, but that has changed now. There are more youngsters coming through than ever – they are more professional and if I want to compete against them I have to look after myself.

I see boxers train and I know what they do with the dedication in their lives with their diet and fitness. You have to be 100% – seeing boxers changed my life. You have to put the work in every day. There is so much more dedication than ever before, surely it is about time we were put into the Olympic Games because we have really worked hard for this.

We are such a global sport. But darts can only keep doing what it does. In the audience at last Monday’s final at the Circus Tavern in Purfleet you had professional footballers, rock singers and politicians. The sport of darts links so many people together – and it would provide a great spectacle at the Olympics.

Recognition is important but it does not always happen in our sport. I have been to Buckingham Palace and I have been to 10 Downing Street, but I cannot get on the BBC’s Sports Personality of the Year show, even though I have won the world title 13 times now.

I have been on Question of Sport, though I have never been invited since I left the British Darts Organisation [Taylor is now a member of the rival organisation, the Professional Darts Council]. I was there in 1992, but I have never been invited again. I thought with other events being on Sky, I would never be invited. I am disappointed, of course I am, and, if you ask me, it boils down to snobbery again.