 Chappell didn't make obscene gesture
 Kolkata, Nov 26: Rallying around coach Greg Chappell, the Indian team management today denied that he had made an obscene gesture to local cricket fans and said he was only attending to an injured finger.
"I have spoken to Chappell. He told me that while giving fielding practice to the players, he injured a finger.
He was only attending to the finger in the team bus," Indian team's media manager M Baladitya told newspersons here.
Television footage had shown the coach, who had just boarded the team bus, allegedly making a gesture with his finger towards cricket fans, apparently in response to jeers from them after the Indian team's practice session on Thursday.
Chappell had drawn the ire of the cricket fans in Kolkata, who have held him responsible for local boy and former Indian skipper Sourav Ganguly's omission from the one-day side. Tetras Communication, a local production house which caught Chappell in an irate mood, included the video clip in its programme 'Dus Miniter Khel' and has distributed it to other channels.
However, Baladitya said that too much must not be read into it. "It has bee blown out of proportion." "As skipper Rahul Dravid has also said, we respect the sports-loving people of Kolkata," he said. Asked whether the Indian team was upset at the hostility displayed by a section of the spectators towards the home side during yesterday's ODI, Baladitya said "No, no. We did not take umbrage. In fact, Rahul has already said at the post-match media meet last night that players have to take both cheers and admonitions"
"'They are professionals, and they take such things in their stride," he said. Chappell's alleged gesture has drawn angry response in the city with politicians and prominent personalities denouncing it. (Agencies)
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