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Everton’s hopes of luring Arouna Kone to Goodison Park have received a boost, with the Wigan striker admitting that he would like to remain in the Premier League.

The Ivorian was one of the Latics’ most impressive performers last term, netting regularly as the DW Stadium outfit secured The FA Cup.

However, he was unable to help them avoid relegation, and is now being linked with a summer move.

Roberto Martinez is keen for the 29-year-old to follow him to Everton, and may even activate the £6.5million release clause in his contract to force through a deal.

Although he is happy at Wigan, Kone has admitted that he would seriously consider a move to a Premier League side in the coming months.

“I have a contract until 2015 with Wigan and I settled very well there, it is a brilliant community football club. The chairman is fantastic,” he is quoted by The Mirror.

“Yes, I want to be playing in the Premier League, but it also depends on Wigan because I have a contract with them.

“Everton? Just because the gaffer is in charge makes the link stronger but, to be honest, I don’t know what will happen. After the international games I will know more.”

Kone only joined Wigan last summer from Levante, but has proved to be a capable Premier League forward.

He is also vastly experience, having played for sides in Holland, Spain, Germany, Belgium and the Ivory Coast.

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Can Arouna Kone score the goals to help Everton qualify for Europe?

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Everton are having a terrible season so far with numerous injury problems and poor performances all contributing to the difficult relegation battle they have found themselves in over the remaining weeks of the season.

Frank Lampard was brought in on Deadline Day to steady the ship after a series of shocking performances and lack of points on the board following a six and a half month stint with Rafa Benitez in charge at Goodison Park, but has struggled to inspire a run of good form since his arrival.

In the Premier League, the ex-Chelsea boss has managed eight, won two and lost six so far, as well as crashing out of the FA Cup to Crystal Palace last month missing out on a spot in the semi-final at Wembley, all of which is not ideal as Everton begin to run out of time to secure safety.

With that being said, the Blues boss should not take all the blame for the poor results he has racked up since he joined in January, as a number of players are failing to pull their weight, and one, in particular, has let the team down time and time again.

Michael Keane has scored two own goals that have led to defeat against Norwich City and Tottenham Hotspurs since the turn of the year, and most recently received his second yellow with a red card to follow in the defeat to West Ham United on Sunday afternoon. Surely this has to be the final nail in the coffin for the calamitous centre-back.

The £19.8m-rated defender who was dubbed a “liability” by Trevor Sinclair, has also been criticised for his negative impact on the Everton team, with Paul Robinson telling Football Insider that Keane is part of a problem that is “costing Everton dearly.”

At this point of the season Lampard really needs players he can rely on for the final push to make sure the Toffees stay inside the Premier League next season and when you look at Keane’s erratic behaviour on the pitch alongside his countless mistakes there is absolutely no reason why moving forward Lampard should put up with it and as a result, should sell the defender at his earliest convenience.

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The Toffees now have ten games left to save their season and ensure they are playing top flight football next season, but it won’t be easy as they have a number of difficult fixtures ahead of them with Arsenal, Liverpool, Man United and Chelsea left to play, so picking up points against Burnley tonight at Turf Moor is an absolute must.

In other news: Signed for £0, then became worth £35m: Everton struck gold over “king of blunders”

ScorecardA collapse – six wickets for 21 runs – by Windward Islands in their chase of 217, gave Trinidad and Tobago a 16-run victory in St Vincent.Windwards top order had led them to a comfortable 181 for 3, with No. 3 Andre Fletcher and Liam Sebastien scoring half-centuries. But legspinner Yannik Cariah ripped through the middle order, and the final six batsmen scored 16 runs together, with three batsmen dismissed for 0, to be bowled out for 202 in the final over. Cariah finished with 5 for 44, his best performance in his three-match List A career.T&T’s innings revolved around a solid top-order performance, led by an unbeaten half-century from Jason Mohammed. Besides Justin Guillen, who was dismissed for 2, all other batsmen scored atleast 20. Spinners Sebastien and Shane Shillingford took two wickets each.
ScorecardA balanced and collective effort by Jamaica helped them clinch the contest against Combined Campuses and Colleges by four wickets at Sabina Park, and lead the points table.Having being asked to field, Jamaica kept chipping away at their opponents, as none of the batsmen could anchor the innings. Floyd Reifer and the captain Kyle Corbin got starts, but departed after scoring 32 and 24 respectively. Spinner Nikita Miller was the chief wicket-taker, with three wickets.The home side two wickets early, with opener Jermaine Blackwood and No. 3 Nkrumah Bonner dismissed for a duck. However, Andre McCarthy (45), the captain Tamar Lambert (34) and David Bernard (28) helped them reach the target in the 46th over.

Peter Phillips, the Jamaican security minister, has called for a review of the investigations into the death of Bob Woolmer. This comes two days after police closed the case stating that Woolmer’s death was due to natural causes.Justice Ian Forte, a former president of the Appeal Court, will lead the probe. Reuters quoted Phillips saying that the review would look into “the appropriateness of the techniques and the standards of professionalism employed by the police investigators, as well as the medical and other professional personnel.”Phillips said the exercise was to be completed within six weeks and a report submitted by July 31.Phillips declined to comment on the conclusions arrived at by the Jamaican police in the Woolmer case and said that given the high-profile nature and the circumstances surrounding the case, he believed it necessary to commission a review of the investigations.

ScorecardIreland stormed to a surprisingly comprehensive 85-run win over Scotland in the 3rd match of the European Cricket Championships at Ayr.Despite possessing the services of Warwickshire’s Dougie Brown, Scotland’s performance was limp – especially from their bowlers who suffered with their line and length. Eoin Morgan, the young Middlesex left hander, was the chief beneficiary with a fine 99. He and Niall O’Brien came together with Ireland in the tricky position of 19 for 2, but soon steadied the innings by adding 70 for the third wicket. Morgan played the anchor to O’Brien’s aggressive role, bringing up his fifty from 83 balls.O’Brien, looking settled and increasingly confident after smashing four fours, fell to Craig Wright, the Scotland captain, but Morgan found strong support from Kyle McCallan who struck a brisk 46 to take Ireland to an impressive 240 for 8.Scotland, though, were never in the hunt for 241. Navdeep Poonia, Brown’s Warwickshire team-mate making his debut for Scotland, looked settled and confident at the crease, crunching four boundaries before David Langford-Smith sneaked one through his defence to begin the procession of wickets. When Brown fell for just 11, leaving Scotland on 72 for 4, their hopes were shattered and despite a plucky 31 from the No. 10, Paul Hoffmann, Scotland were dismissed for just 155.Scotland now face the Netherlands tomorrow at the same ground, while a confident Irish side take on Italy, on Monday, at Hamilton Crescent in Glasgow.

Dilhara Fernando: back in the fold for Sri Lanka © Getty Images

Dilhara Fernando has been included in Sri Lanka’s 15-man squad for the IndianOil triangular one-day tournament which also involves West Indies and India. The squad also includes two uncapped players – Upul Tharanga, a left-handed opening batsman, and Dilhara Lokuhettige, an allrounder whose medium pace has fetched him 137 first-class wickets.Fernando has shown excellent promise as a fast bowler, but his career has been plagued by injury, especially a stress fracture of the back which kept him out of the side for long periods. However, he has shown signs of regaining full fitness, and performed superbly for the A in the one-day series against their West Indian counterparts, taking nine wickets in five games at 17.33.The tournament gets underway on July 30, with Sri Lanka taking on India under lights. This will be Tom Moody’s first one-day series as the Sri Lankan coach. Incidentally, his counterparts Greg Chappell, India’s coach, and Bennett King, the West Indian coach, are also from Australia. The first four matches will be played at Dambulla before the action moves to the Premadasa Stadium in Colombo for the last two games and the final on August 9.Squad
Marvan Atapattu (capt), Sanath Jayasuriya, Upul Tharanga, Kumar Sangakkara (wk), Mahela Jayawardene, Tillakaratne Dilshan, Russel Arnold, Dilhara Lokuhettige, Upul Chandana, Chaminda Vaas, Nuwan Zoysa, Farveez Maharoof, Muttiah Muralitharan, Dilhara Fernando, Lasith Malinga.

Inzamam-ul-Haq turned up for the briefest of press conferences on the eve of the Rawalpindi Test. Sourav Ganguly, meanwhile, revealed India’s playing XI, and also indicated that he and Yuvraj Singh were the contenders to open the batting.

Mohammad Sami: all set to play in the decider© AFP

Inzamam-ul-Haq
On the importance of the decider
Obviously the decider is extremely important. The boys have been working very hard and they are confident after the way they played at Lahore. We want a repeat performance here from them.On the pitch
The pitch looks good for bowling and it seems like it will help them throughout. Our bowlers performed well in the last match and they are confident of doing well on this wicket also.On the Pakistan squad
The only one we have omitted from the list of 17 is Abdur Rauf. We just want to keep our options open. Nothing has been confirmed yet – all the boys are working hard. Whoever performs well in practice will give themselves a chance of playing.On Mohammad Sami
His name has been announced in the squad of 16, which means that he is fit to play.On the importance of the toss
It will be a good toss to win, and I think bowling first is probably the best option given the nature of the pitch.On Sourav Ganguly’s return
He will obviously make a difference. His captaincy in the ODIs was very good, so that will help them. But he has missed a couple of matches now and might be rusty.On playing four fast bowlers
It is an option but we will confirm it tomorrow.Sourav Ganguly
On team composition
Ajit [Agarkar], Aakash [Chopra], [Murali] Kartik, Ramesh [Powar] and [Mohammad] Kaif won’t be playing.

Sourav Ganguly contemplates his position in the batting order© AFP

On who will open the batting with Virender Sehwag
It’s a tough call. It will be either myself or Yuvraj. When we picked Yuvraj ahead of [Sadagoppan] Ramesh in the squad, he had agreed to open if required. This is a one-off situation, and the question is, what is best for the team. At the end of the day, I’m not an opener. But it’s also difficult shifting a guy [Yuvraj] from his position when he’s done well there. But in the long run, Yuvraj has to consider himself as an opener.On the pitch
It’s become a little browner since yesterday because of the sunshine. But if there’s a lot of grass left on it, that will help the bowlers on both sides. But it could be a lot like Lahore where there was initial movement, but it then settled down to be a good batting track. As for bowling first on winning the toss, it will depend on how much moisture there is in the pitch.On dropping Chopra
It’s hard on Aakash, but it’s also difficult to ask a batsman to sit out after he has made a Test hundred. He [Aakash] is definitely part of the team, and will get his place back. This is a one-off, and we don’t play our next Test for six months. But it was certainly among the more difficult decisions I have had to make as captain.On India’s failure to close out Test series abroad
It will be a motivation for us. We have come close on several occasions. Hopefully, we can make it here. But we have to focus on the game. It’s when you start looking too far ahead, thinking of victory and defeat, that you start taking wrong decisions.On what areas the Indians need to work on
I said before the series that how we batted would determine the result. When we batted well in Multan, we won. We didn’t bat so well in Lahore.On some of the Pakistani bowlers being unknown quantities
We played Naved [ul-Hasan] in Karachi. And anyway, I believe it’s the ball that matters, not who bowls it. You saw how Umar Gul did when he came into the side.

The ICC Cricket World Cup 2003 today reiterated that it had played no part in the allocation of matches to local television channels.CWC 2003 Executive Director Dr Ali Bacher was involved in facilitating the process whereby both SABC and Supersport would have the rights to televise ICC Cricket World Cup matches in South Africa and Africa.The SABC on-sold rights to the pay channel Supersport in a deal that permitted Supersport to televise live all 54 scheduled matches and SABC 27 of them.Neither the International Cricket Council nor the CWC 2003 organising committee played any role in this 54-27 division of matches which was entirely a business arrangement between SABC and Supersport.Fully aware of the SABC’s allocation of 27 matches, Dr Bacher had consistently urged both SABC and Supersport to find a way for the national broadcaster to screen more games.On one occasion – when SABC3’s planned coverage of the Zimbabwe-England match in Harare fell away after the late cancellation of the fixture – Dr Bacher intervened personally to gain permission from Supersport for the pay channel’s coverage of the West Indies-New Zealand game on the same day to be carried on SABC3.Had this not been arranged at the 11th hour, SABC3’s live cricket slot that day would have been left void.The ICC and CWC 2003 were also not party to a decision that SABC3 screen live only five of the nine Super Six matches.Both SABC3 and Supersport will broadcast the ICC CWC 2003 Semifinals and Final in the week ahead.Rodney Hartman
Communications Director
ICC Cricket World Cup South Africa 2003
Tel: +27 11 446 3604
Fax: +27 11 446 3622
Mobile: +27 83 389 0904

Mike Smith admits that there have been times in recent months when he thought he might not play cricket again.But Gloucestershire’s left-arm opening bowler and former England man, widely regarded as the foremost exponent of swing bowling in domestic cricket, told CricInfo that he is now optimistic that he’ll be back in action at the start of the 2002 season.”I’ve had a couple of injections, but they’ve not worked,” Smith said. “Thenext step is to see a surgeon. But I’m quite optimistic now. It is the sort of injury that many footballers suffer from – an inflamed bone that pulls on the tendons.”I did it last July, but carried on as I thought it would probably go in acouple of weeks. In retrospect that wasn’t such a good idea. It could have been career threatening and there is no short-term cure, but things seem to be a bit better now.”I’ve a year left on my contract, and the option for a further one so I’ve acouple of good years left in me yet.”The Australians’ return to England brings back memories of Smith’s solitary Test against them, when they were last here in 1997.”They’re even better than when I played against them. I think Lee is animprovement on Reiffel, and Gilchrist – though perhaps not as good a ‘keeper – makes their batting even more dangerous. Mark Taylor was a bit out of form then too, so they do look a fair bit stronger now.”And does an Ashes series make him recall his own Test career? “It’s come up a few times, especially with regard to my benefit. In fact there’s a picture of ‘it’ in the brochure,” he says ruefully.The ‘it’ that he refers too is, of course, the moment that Graham Thorpe dropped Matthew Elliott on 32 in the Test at Headingley in 1997. Elliott went on to hit a match-winning 199 and that first Test wicket never did come.But Smith isn’t the type to mope. “I look back with pure enjoyment. It didn’t go particularly well on the field, but I’ve played for England and that’s a massive achievement and honour,” he says with refreshing enthusiasm.But doesn’t he reflect on what might have been? “I was never going to play 50 Tests for England,” he says modestly. “I’m not particularly quick and I don’t benefit from the bounce of the taller guys.”Smith was rated as the top English one-day bowler in county cricket for the 2000 season and only Glenn McGrath beat him overall. Many people feel – Gloucestershire supporters in particular – that he could have had a greater role to play at international level.”Oh, I think the door is shut now,” he admits with his customary frankness.”I’m too old. I’ll be 34 at the start of next year. Although I feel I could still do a good job I expect the onus is on building for the 2003 World Cup and I’ll be getting on a bit by then.”And he has some advice for the England selectors too. “They should be looking at guys like Jon Lewis. He’s developed into a fine bowler, and after a successful A Tour, we all hoped he’d win a call-up this summer.”Smith is sympathetic to Lewis’ current injury plight and believes that thecall-up for Somerset’s Richard Johnson – deserved though it was – might well have gone to Lewis had he been fit.”It’s a terrible blow for him, it really is. He was the victim of the dominoeffect. He had to take up my share of overs and suffered a stress fracturepartly as a result. And that means the club are without another leading bowler. It has been a frustrating year.”There were some raised eyebrows around the circuit when the speed cameras were introduced for one-day games. They showed Smith to be consistently around 82 mph – much quicker than was formerly believed.”That didn’t surprise me at all. Because I’m not tall I may not get the eye-catching bounce, but the ball speed is measured through the air, so skiddy bowlers like me can be deceptive.”He admits that life as a spectator hasn’t been particularly easy. “At the start watching was hard, and the final of the B & H at Lord’s was really terrible [Gloucestershire lost to Surrey]. I haven’t been to all the away games, but I have been watching when I can. Now it’s fine. I’m a pretty calm individual and if there’s nothing I can do about it I don’t worry.”Smith is a local favourite at Gloucestershire, and is enjoying a benefitseason this year. “I’ve been overwhelmed by the support I’ve received. Peoplehave told me to take my time and make sure I come back fully fit. They’ve been great.”And the future? “I’ve been studying for a law degree, so that is where my future lies. But not just yet.”

Misbah-ul-Haq has expressed concerns following the recent anti-Pakistan protests in Mumbai, because Pakistan are scheduled to travel to India for the World T20 in March 2016.The scheduled meeting between BCCI president Shashank Manohar and PCB chairman Shaharyar Khan on Monday to discuss the proposed India-Pakistan series was disrupted by a group of 50 workers from regional political party Shiv Sena, who stormed the BCCI headquarters in Mumbai, shouted anti-Pakistan slogans and demanded the cancellation of the proposed series.Following the protests, the ICC withdrew Pakistani umpire Aleem Dar from the remaining two ODIs between India and South Africa, while Wasim Akram and Shoaib Akhtar, who are in India as part of the commentary team, are also returning to Pakistan after the fourth ODI in Chennai.Misbah, the Pakistan Test captain, said he was disappointed with political interference in sporting activity. “It’s always disappointing,” he said in Dubai. “It’s not just about India-Pakistan; wherever it happens it is disappointing. I believe politics should be separate from sports. Otherwise it’s really difficult for all nations that are playing the game and we all should play each other.”When Australia didn’t tour Bangladesh recently that was disappointing as well,” Misbah said. “As cricketers we want to play each other, and we don’t want any sort of politics involved in this sport.”Pakistan have no intention of pulling out from the World T20 in India, which will be played at eight venues including Mumbai, but Misbah spoke of strong concerns about playing in India amid political tension. “These are the big concerns,” Misbah said, referring to the protests.”Obviously when these sort of things happen, that really puts something in your mind. I don’t know what is going to happen but obviously these are the big concerns. You don’t want to restrict yourself not to play here and there. We really want to play everywhere and enjoy the game.”This is not the first time Pakistan have expressed such concerns. The Pakistan women’s team was forced to play their 2013 World Cup group matches in Cuttack, following threats from political activists in Mumbai.