Chappell, who addressed the media along with Rahul Dravid, let BCCI's media manager M Baladitya speak on the issue while maintaining a stoic stance.
MUMBAI: Even as the Cricket Board tried to put to rest the controversy over Greg Chappell's alleged 'finger salute', the man in the centre of the furore chose to remain silent on the raging issue.
Chappell, who addressed the media ahead of the fifth and final India-South Africa ODI here tomorrow along with team captain Rahul Dravid, let BCCI's media manager M Baladitya speak on the raging issue while maintaining a stoic stance.
Baladitya, on his part, tried to sweep the entire episode under the carpet saying, "no incident like this ever happened".
"All the team members, including Chappell, have enormous respect for the Indian fans," he added. The media manager also sought to put the lid on the issue by stating this was the last that would be said on the controversy from the Board's side.
Earlier, a Kolkata newspaper said Indian cricket coach Greg Chappell has admitted to making the obscene finger gesture to a crowd of fans here, even as the team management claimed otherwise.
"Yes, I did," Chappell was quoted as saying by an English newspaper from Kolkata on Sunday.
When asked if the gesture was aimed at the crowd, he said: "I do not think I need to specify the reason to you."
Chappell's own admission of the middle finger act came after the Indian team's media manager Wing Commander M. Baladitya on Saturday tried to put a lid on the controversy saying Chappell was attending to his hurt middle finger after a practice session ahead of the fourth one-dayer against South Africa here on Friday.
Chappell said the footage, first captured by a local production house of a sports capsule and later sold to mainline news channels, was not doctored. He also termed the behaviour of the Kolkata crowd as "bizzare".
The cricket fans and cricketing community of West Bengal were livid over the Chappell act since Friday when the footage was shown on television channels.
Since Friday night, Baladitya had been maintaining that "Greg had hurt his finger in the field during a practice session on Thursday and he was tending it while boarding the bus."
"Greg did not make any obscene gesture at the crowd and the incident has been blown out of proportion," Baladitya had said.
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