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Journalist Dean Jones believes West Ham would need to spend big to lure Aston Villa star Philippe Coutinho to London, GiveMeSport report.

The Lowdown: West Ham links

Once labelled as ‘phenomenal’ by Roberto Firmino, it is no surprise Coutinho has been a regular under Steven Gerrard since joining on loan in January.

He’s contributed to four Premier League goals in six appearances, starting the last five.

Villa have the option to make a loan move from Barcelona permanent in the summer, however, West Ham are now thought to be keen on the 29-year-old ahead of the 2022/23 campaign.

The Latest: Jones’ comments

Talking to GiveMeSport, Jones had this to say on the Brazilian, admitting he is unsure where he will end up next season and believes the Hammers would need to pay ‘a lot of money’ for the attacking midfielder in the summer.

“I don’t know where I see Coutinho right now. I think West Ham will be mindful of what they’re signing in Coutinho, if they were to go down that path, because it would take a lot of money.”

The Verdict: In Villa’s hands…

Coutinho has already started as many league games for Villa as he did for Barcelona this season, with Gerrard making the player a key man once again.

On that basis, you’d like to think that Coutinho will be open to making his move in the Midlands permanent over the coming months. However, it doesn’t exactly come as a shock to see other clubs being linked with Coutinho following his eye-catching displays in a Villa shirt against Manchester United and Leeds.

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Villa appear to be in pole position for a permanent move, though, so hopefully, the Hammers don’t persuade Coutinho over moving to London.

In other news: Gerrard is reportedly ready to sell this Aston Villa stalwart.

Lalchand Rajput, the manager of the Indian team, has been appointed assistant coach for the tour of Australia which begins in December.”Gary Kirsten will confirm [his willingness to take up the job of coach] in seven days,” Rajeev Shukla, the Indian board vice-president, said. “Kirsten, if he takes up the job, will be with the team in parts during the Australia tour and hence Rajput will be with the team.”India have been without a coach since Greg Chappell stepped down in April after the World Cup. For the tours that followed, cricket managers were appointed to take charge of the side. Ravi Shastri managed the team in Bangladesh in May and Chandu Borde was in charge in England. Rajput took over from Borde for India’s victorious ICC World Twenty20 campaign and continued to manage the side for the recent home series against Australia and Pakistan.He will now travel with the team to Australia for four Tests and a triangular one-day series.

West Indies will have a lot to worry about if Sarwan and Chanderpaul are not fully fit before the World Cup © Getty Images

West Indies’ third most-capped player, and the second in line to the captaincy, has expressed one opinion on the team’s final preparations for the World Cup, now only two months away. Last week, the selectors gave another.Following December’s one-day series in Pakistan, for which he was entrusted with the vice-captaincy, Chris Gayle wrote that it was “about time” the West Indies had “a steady World Cup squad”. “There is no time to experiment now,” was his logical conclusion.That would have meant choosing the World Cup 14, all to the injured Ramnaresh Sarwan, for the ODI series in India, starting next weekend.The four matches are the last prior to the World Cup that gets underway with the West Indies meeting Pakistan at Sabina Park on March 13. The one-day games present a timely opportunity for the team to sharpen their edge in some tough contests and for the coach Bennett King and captain Brian Lara to determine the best combinations.Above all, to have decided on the World Cup lineup at this early stage would have given peace of mind to those unsure of their places.When the West Indies Cricket Board (WICB) finally got around to officially naming the team on January 12, several days after it was disclosed on various media outlets, convenor of selectors Gordon Greenidge outlined a somewhat different scenario.”This is our last chance to look at a few players and they have been included because you do know what might happen in the next few weeks,” he explained. “We have a few injuries, and we want to have a look at a few players at international level to see what they have to offer.”The “few players” Greenidge and his colleagues want to have a final look at are Devon Smith, Darren Sammy and Reyad Emrit who replace Daren Ganga, Dwayne Smith and Corey Collymore from the Pakistan series.Dwayne Bravo (on compassionate grounds) and Sarwan (injury) both missed the Pakistan ODIs. But while Bravo is back Sarwan has still not recovered from his fractured left foot, crushed by Umar Gul’s yorker in the final Test in Pakistan on December 1.Their absence was a severe setback in Pakistan and Sarwan’s long recovery remains a genuine cause for concern. For all his problems last year, culminating in his dropping from the Test team in Pakistan, he remains an essential component in a potentially strong, but inherently inconsistent batting team. His average of 44 in 115 ODIs compares with the best of the day.

Devon Smith, in as a cover for injured Ramnaresh Sarwan for the one-dayers against India, last played an ODI in July 2004 © Getty Images

Without him in Pakistan, West Indies turned to Lendl Simmons, a talented player but still an apprentice, and have now brought back Devon Smith as cover, two and a half years after he was seen as unsuited to the abbreviated game and dropped.Such juggling accentuates Sarwan’s significance. As it is, he has not had an innings since December 1 and, since he misses the Indian series, he will be short of match practice when the World Cup comes around.There are also injury doubts over Shivnarine Chanderpaul and Simmons, neither of whom has yet appeared in the current domestic season although both are included in the squad for India. Chanderpaul has found a new lease of life since his reinstatement as Gayle’s partner in an opening pairing that is the most prolific on ODI record. His value is enhanced at the top of the order and his fitness, to be assessed before he is passed for India, is as essential as Sarwan’s.Dwayne Smith has been left out of the team for India so that Greenidge’s panel can assess Sammy and Emrit, both useful allrounders, at a level higher than the ‘A’ team to which they have been confined.They appear to be contesting one place in the final 14, mainly as medium-pace bowlers who can score handy lower-order runs.Perhaps Dwayne Smith’s exclusion is down to the selectors’ frustration over his failure to produce more with the bat but it is inconceivable that he won’t be the World Cup team.For all his inconsistency, he remains capable of the kind of match-winning innings Collis King, a similarly explosive hitter, produced in the 1979 World Cup final. He bowls effective medium-pace and, above all, is a fielder on par with any in the contemporary game.The value of fielding, more especially in the limited-overs game, cannot be overstated. Viv Richards’ run outs of the Chappell brothers and Alan Turner were as crucial in the victory in the inaugural World Cup in 1975 as Clive Lloyd’s violent hundred.Lara’s three close-in catches and a run out and Bravo’s sharp run out of Andrew Strauss were mainly responsible for restricting England’s score in the victorious ICC Champions Trophy final in 2004.Roger Harper and Jonty Rhodes commanded places in their teams as much on the strength of their fielding as on their other, somewhat lesser virtues. Herschelle Gibbs and Andrew Symonds have offset lean patches with the bat by their value in the field.If the top four in the batting – Gayle, Chanderpaul, Sarwan and Lara – are consistently at their best and build challenging totals and if the fielders support their bowlers and energise the team into limiting, or defending, totals then West Indies has a chance of winning the World Cup. Every one must play his part, one of the many aspects of their cricket that sets Australia apart.

West Indies will need more athletic fielders like Dwayne Bravo to have a successful World Cup campaign © Getty Images

The West Indies carry one or two slow coaches with weak arms but Smith and Bravo are two of the sharpest around in patrolling opposite side of the semi-circles during the early and mid-overs and then protecting the boundaries with their speed and power-throwing in the hectic closing stages.If Smith has been left at home for no other reason than for the selectors “to have a look at a few players at international level to see what they have to offer”, longer term inferences can be made for some who did not make the cut in the initial World Cup squad of 30.Merv Dillon can certainly take it that his stated ambition to return to international cricket is over, as can Reon King. So, as far as the one-day version is concerned, can Pedro Collins and Tino Best. Apart from Best, they are all cricketers on the wrong side of 30 who have had their moments and are in the twilight of their careers.Richard Kelly is at the start of his career and has been left to reflect, as so many others before him, what a fickle game it is. A regular in the ‘A’ team in four successive series as an energetic allrounder and seen as a strong contender for promotion as recently as a few months ago, he suddenly finds himself excluded from the top 30.He is simply the latest West Indian to follow such an undulating path recently. Remember Donovan Pagon, Dave Bernard, Xavier Marshall? It is better he remember a few Australians who also disappeared from the selectors’ radar after early recognition. Their names are Justin Langer, Matthew Hayden and Damien Martyn.

Wasim Bari played a straight bat when asked about Imran Farhat’s chances of a recall © Getty Images

An impressive hundred for Pakistan A against India by Imran Farhat has left Pakistan’s selectors with a tough conundrum as they prepare to select their squad for the series against India on Monday. Farhat was dropped after the Melbourne Test against Australia just over a year ago and despite a shortage of opening options – Pakistan picked only one specialist opener in the series against England – he has faded away from national reckoning since.Pakistan recalled Yasir Hameed, another opener dropped in recent time, for their training camp but he has since fallen ill with typhoid and is unlikely to participate in the first Test. With Shoaib Malik failing to entirely convince as an opener in three Tests against England, Farhat’s reminder to the selectors of his presence could not have been timed any better. Of Farhat’s two Test centuries, one came against India in Lahore two years ago. On the back of an impressive year, that restrained and matchwinning hundred seemingly sealed his place in the side. But a loss of form, culminating in a poor series against Australia left him on the sidelines, since when he has been left to impress at domestic level. Less than a month ago, against a PIA attack including Umar Gul, Fazl-e-Akbar and Najaf Shah, Farhat compiled a mammoth 242 and is averaging just over 80 after four matches in the Patrons Trophy.Wasim Bari, chief selector, admitted his panel had been impressed by the innings but refused to divulge whether he would be called up in light of Hameed’s likely absence. “We will discuss it when making the selection,” Bari told Cricinfo. “We all watched him bat today and it was a good innings but I don’t really want to say anymore on his chances right now. All players in this match are under consideration.”Bari did point out, revealingly perhaps, that captain, coach and selectors are reluctant to tinker too much with a winning team. It suggests, as Inzamam-ul-Haq has also hinted, that Malik may be persevered with as opener for a little longer. “We’re keen on sticking with a winning combination and Malik does also bring balance to our team with his bowling. But it will depend also on what sort of balance the captain wants in his team.”Pakistan has struggled to find a settled opening pair for some time now; some might argue since the left-handed days of Aamir Sohail and Saeed Anwar. In their last thirteen Tests alone Pakistan have tried ten different opening combinations and the emergence of Salman Butt – and that too only recently – has been their only success.Lower down, at number six, lies a more pleasant problem. Primarily, the dilemma is one of intent. In Abdul Razzaq, Shahid Afridi and Asim Kamal Pakistan have three options and endless possibilities. Afridi and Razzaq not only provide robustness to the bowling, their batting allows Pakistan opportunities to attack. Bari said, “The form Afridi and Razzaq have been in means it is very difficult to drop them from the line-up,” which suggests that Kamal’s stodginess in the lower-order may not warrant a starting place. With eight fifties in twelve Tests in his career thus far, Kamal’s plight highlights the current depth in Pakistan’s squad.Earlier in the day, while speaking to the press, Bari said Shoaib Akhtar was bowling as well as he had ever seen him bowl. Bari, along with team management didn’t select Shoaib against India and the West Indies last year. “Not just my view but that of the committee as well that he wasn’t fit when the tour of India was on. It is important for every cricketer to be fit. You can see he is fit, and I haven’t seen him bowl as well as he did against England. He was a complete team man and played brilliantly. He played in all the Tests and took crucial, important wickets for the team. He is now a total team man.”Bari also said he was expecting a keen contest between India and Pakistan. “They are two very good teams. Both are very balanced. No expert can say who is going to win the series. It depends on who plays better on the day. But both have their srengths. India have a formidable batting and very good seam bowlers. Pakistan has the edge in one of the fastest bowlers in Shoaib. If he bowls as well as he did against England, run-getting will be very difficult.”

It was a tale of two sets of nerves at the post-match press conference: Stuart MacGill’s as he returned to Test cricket after ten months away and Shane Watson’s on debut. MacGill calmed his with the wicket of Younis Khan, after starting with 0 for 43 from six overs, and took four more on the way to 5 for 87. Stumbling through his first delivery, Watson bowled in support of themain men and finished with 0 for 28 from 10 overs:

Stuart MacGill made a superb return to Test cricket, taking five wickets on the first day at Sydney© Getty Images

Stuart MacGill
On the slow start to his comeback
I definitely didn’t start the way I wanted, but I think I can be forgiven for being a little nervous – I haven’t played [Test cricket] in a long time. As calm as I try to be, the first Test back each time seems to get me. I knew once I’d taken a wicket it would change, and fortunately it did.On his performance
Because I’d been bowling well I expected it to happen, and [I knew] I’d show everybody what I’ve got. But I’m happy, I wasn’t sure at the end whether the weather was getting cold or I was getting tingles.On the difference when he started getting wickets
When I was keen I was rushing through my action, and that was where the short balls outside off stump came from. Fortunately, at my age, I knew that and knewthere was nothing to panic about.On the satisfaction of five wickets
It’s important to maintain the same sense of satisfaction no matter what stage of your career. A five-for in a run of 10 or 12 Tests is every bit – sometimes more – important than your first one back. Because there’s the element of nerves you feel like it’s more important.On the need for a strong return
There were thoughts running through my mind that if I didn’t get wickets in this game you guys would all say “That’s it, there’s never going to be twolegspinners playing again in the same match.”On his confidence levelsI’ve been bowling so well this season that it couldn’t go wrong in a day, and it would happen at some stage. It was almost like being on the couch – workingthrough it myself, and it started to come right before tea. To get the first wicket is a very important moment.On bowling with Warne
I’ve said it enough now for somebody to believe me. I really don’t mind who I bowl with at the other end. In a team that is so talented it’s important not to let them down. When Warney came back on I was doing my job and we both looked like getting wickets.On when he could play next
Shane’s [Watson] emergence is going to help me play more Test cricket. It may predominantly be on turning pitches, but there’s also a possibility that teams who are perceived to play wrist-spin poorly may also get the same treatment. There’s a perception out there that New Zealand and England have deficiencies in that area.On the pitch
Batting tomorrow will be good, but as the game goes on there will be less and less bounce. It will be a little bit more difficult to score once the ball has lost its shine. I expect to do a lot of bowling in the second innings.On the Pakistani batting
While there were obviously some shots that weren’t great, it’s a wicket that’s hard to come in and bat on. You feel an obligation to keep the scoreboard going. I’m reluctant to be too critical, because I’ve seen it in other teams that I’ve played against this season.

Shane Watson fell over first ball, but that helped settle his nerves on debut© Getty Images

Shane Watson
On his first-day nerves
It’s been a very nervous day, but after I got my nerves out of the way and fell over for my first ball I felt all right. I was happy with the way the ball come out, and got a bit of confidence in the field.On his bowling
I felt like I fulfilled my role and bowled fairly tight at times. I have to keep the pressure at my end so the other guys can keep plugging away.On bowling in a Test
The great thing is I’ve had a great start with my one-day career and bowling in front of those big crowds. I felt quite comfortable at the start bowlingwith the big crowds around me.On preparing to bat
I’ll probably be a bit more nervous when I bat, mainly because it’s two against 11. I look forward to getting a chance. I don’t know where I’ll bat, probably No. 6 or 7, it doesn’t worry me.On being picked ahead of Michael Kasprowicz
All I can do is play my best. It’s disappointing he’s missed out because he’s been bowling so well. I can’t really worry about those pressures because I’d goinsane.

Leg weary Alton return from their South Wales tour to face Hungerford in a potentially tricky Southern Electric Premier League, Division 3 match at the War Memorial Ground.Alton are unbeaten and 18 points clear at the top, but Hungerford will be at full strength with their MCC Young Professional recuits all available.Second placed Ventnor will expect to keep their title hopes alive at relegation-threatened Flamingo, while Rowledge should be too strong for Hook & Newnham Basics.Trojans must beat South Wilts II at Stoneham Lane to keep their flickering promotion hopes alive.Winchester KS host Southsea at River Park, with Paultons expecting to pour more relegation gloom on Portsmouth II, who have lost their last six games.

The chairman of the West Indies selectors, Mike Findlay, has come to the defence of a controversial decision to include Brian Lara in the party to tour Sri Lanka in November.Lara has been hampered by hamstring injuries for almost a year and was unable to participate totally in training last week because there are still fears that he has not yet fully recovered from the injury. He was forced to return early from the recent West Indies tour of Zimbabwe when the problem flared up once again.Findlay said: “Brian still has a future in West Indies cricket and he can still make a significant contribution to West Indies cricket. We are not going to allow history to condemn us that we hadn’t given one of the best batsmen in the Caribbean and best in the world every assistance we could in sorting his problems, whether they are mental or physical. What appears to some people to be leaning on the side of Brian Lara is not that at all.”Lara proved during the recent Red Stripe Bowl competition that, injured or not, he could still score heavily. He came close to establishing himself as the leading batsman in the competition’s history after a prolific season.There is no doubt that the requirement for a fit and in-form Lara became even greater when a back injury forced Shivnarine Chanderpaul to withdraw from the squad earlier this week.

ScorecardChris Rushworth has beaten Ottis Gibson’s Durham wickets record•Getty Images

Neil Dexter’s 13th first-class century helped Middlesex take command of their match against Durham at Chester-le-Street, although their victory march was delayed by Scott Borthwick.Needing 308 to win, Durham go into the final day on 134 for 5 with Borthwick unbeaten on 68. They are 16 points behind their second-placed visitors and, although unlikely, victory could take them ahead with Middlesex running the risk of a points deduction. Their over-rate was reading minus four when they finally turned to Ollie Rayner four overs from the close.Batting was easier under clear skies than on the first day and a half, but Middlesex persevered with seam as their trio of Tim Murtagh, Toby Roland-Jones and James Harris proved the more effective unit.Chris Rushworth recorded his seventh five-wicket haul of the season, so beating the county record of 80 first class wickets in a season by Ottis Gibson, reinstalled recently as England’s bowling coach, a record which he had equalled the previous day, but he had limited support as Middlesex totalled 280 in their second innings.Graham Onions added two wickets to his seven in the first innings, but John Hastings was clearly struggling after playing in every match this season and debut boy James Weighell remained wicketless.Durham had to turn to the spinners after the only wicket in the first 90 minutes came from a ball well wide of leg stump, which Dawid Malan was adjudged to have nicked to the wicketkeeper.Ryan Pringle conceded 19 in his first three overs, Dexter driving him over long-on for six to celebrate his century, in which his fluent driving saw his second 50 come off 55 balls.But when the off-spinner went round the wicket Dexter nibbled at one outside off stump and edged behind to depart for 112.Borthwick came on for the next over and struck with his first ball, a full toss which had John Simpson lbw when he missed an attempted sweep. Rayner failed to heed the lesson as he went the same way in the leg-spinner’s next over.Three wickets had gone down for one run and only nine more were added before Roland-Jones lofted Onions gently to mid-off.Reserve wicketkeeper Stuart Poynter, briefly substituting for Mark Stoneman, dropped it and a further 51 were added before Rushworth took the last two wickets with the new ball. It was the second costly miss of the innings as Malan was dropped first ball and made 63.Durham’s rookie opener Graham Clark bagged a pair when he edged the second ball he faced from Roland-Jones and the rest were all lbw.Only Paul Collingwood, who made 20, looked likely to give prolonged support to Borthwick, who rarely looked troubled in reaching his eighth championship 50 of the season off 95 balls.

Niranjan Shah: ‘We treated the issue just like we would have treated any other Indian player’ © AFP

Greg Chappell, the former India coach, has sought to clarify his recently publicised comments about a “racist attack” on him in India, saying the comments were made at an “emotional time”. Chappell had alleged the attack on him in January, at the Bhubaneshwar airport, was a racial one.Chappell’s allegations came in an ABC documentary to be screened next week. In it, he hit out at the Indian authorities who, he said, attempted to play down a serious breach of security in the eastern state of Orissa.Asked about those allegations on Wednesday, Chappell himself preferred to downplay the incident. “It’s old news,” he told the Indian television channel CNN-IBN. “It was a very emotional time when I made these remarks. It’s a long way back and I’d like to talk about other things now. I’m looking forward to being involved with the Rajasthan Cricket Academy for the next three years.”Meanwhile the Indian board has denied Chappell’s allegations. “No way can it be called racist,” the Indian board secretary, Niranjan Shah, told Cricinfo. “We treated the issue just like we would have treated [it with] any other Indian player. I remember calling him and finding out the issue. We also enhanced security and provided adequate protection. The local police also provided us with support.”

Shane Warne will be the centre of attention at the MCG © Getty Images

The biggest game of the Australian cricket year just got a whole lot bigger. Boxing Day at the Melbourne Cricket Ground is always a massive event but with the retirements of Shane Warne, the home-town hero, and Glenn McGrath the occasion has grown like the commercialisation of Christmas.A week ago the prospect of a stadium jammed with close to 100,000 spectators was likely to be a non-event. The Ashes had been won in Perth 15 days after the contest started and the Australians had shut down the only team to conquer them since Ricky Ponting’s reign began. Now even the thousands of British tourists flying in for what they hoped would be an exhilarating climax have a special event to soften the experience.First on Warne’s list is the one wicket he needs to extend his world record to 700. While the fourth Test is a state farewell for Warne, it is also a game of statistical quirks. Warne’s career haul of 699 is helped by the six victims he picked up in the Super Test last year, an ICC decision that upset traditional record keepers, and the Melbourne Cricket Ground is also heavily promoting the ground’s 100th Test.The same statisticians who feel Warne should have to wait say the same about the MCG, which hosted a rained out match in 1970-71 that is credited by Cricket Australia but not the ICC. Neither minor dilemma will matter to the Victorians who laud their ground and idolise Warne.Warne is not the only Australian looking for a 5-0 defeat of England to cap his career. Ponting has spoken of his desire not to let up on opponents who came with a chance that was quickly washed away. The teams’ Christmas celebrations will be different and England should not expect any end-of-series gifts.Andrew Flintoff has experienced a difficult time on his first playing tour of Australia and knows his side must take any opening in the final two games. “Every time they’ve come back at us hard, and we’ve not been able to apply pressure or seize the opportunities,” he told reporters. “But for two Test matches, if we’re going to have a chance to win against Australia, we’ve got to do that.”The home side may have trouble focussing on the overall goal as two of their most treasured individuals are honoured over the next two weeks. There is a lot to look forward to for Australian fans as the festive season becomes one of local celebrations.Australia (probable) 1 Justin Langer, 2 Matthew Hayden, 3 Ricky Ponting (capt), 4 Michael Hussey, 5 Michael Clarke, 6 Andrew Symonds, 7 Adam Gilchrist (wk), 8 Shane Warne, 9 Brett Lee, 10 Stuart Clark, 11 Glenn McGrath.England (probable) 1 Andrew Strauss, 2 Alastair Cook, 3 Ian Bell, 4 Paul Collingwood, 5 Kevin Pietersen, 6 Andrew Flintoff (capt), 7 Chris Read (wk), 8 Sajid Mahmood, 9 Matthew Hoggard, 10 Steve Harmison, 11 Monty Panesar.