Even after the teams landed in Mumbai for the final one-day international against South Africa, Kolkata refused to fade away.
As soon as India coach Greg Chappell, captain Rahul Dravid and media manager M Baladitya walked in for the press conference, in Mumbai on Sunday, the latter clarified that there would be no further questions on Chappell's finger pointing incident in Kolkata after the fourth ODI.
In a statement, he said: "Our coach Mr. Chappell did not make any gestures as reported in the media. We respect the sentiments of the cricket fans all over the country. As we had also said in Kolkata, it was just that his finger was injured during one of the practice sessions."
Whatever, the hostile behaviour from the Kolkata crowd hasn't remained a secret, nor has the Indian team's disappointment over it.
Continuing in the same vein, Dravid was asked by a journalist whether the team was not given snacks during the game.
"Snacks?" was the Indian captain's bewildered reaction.
After elaborating on the rumours that the team had not been given proper food after the game, Dravid said, "After you are bowled out for 188 you don't even feel like having food.
"Yes, what happened there was unfortunate. There were some sections of the ground, which didn't support us. Fortunately, I wasn't fielding on the boundary where apparently some of our players were abused.
"But it happens sometimes. It's a part and parcel of international cricket. And I told the guys jokingly that at least we were in good company. Sunil Gavaskar was booed at Eden Gardens in 1983 and the team went on to win the World Cup. So, hopefully, we'll do the same."
Dravid shrugged off suggestions that, as the South Africans said, the pressure would be on India to win the fifth and final match in Mumbai to level the series 2-2.
"It's always like that," he said, "Whenever I go to press conferences before the match I say the pressure is on the opposition and they say the same. The fact is that when you are playing international cricket there is equal amount of pressure on both teams."
Not relying too much on the result of Monday's match, the skipper said it was a very good start for the team.
"We were coming out of a low in Indian cricket and it's been a good journey so far.
"Winning 7 out of the last 10 games is very good and it has been a good learning experience for all of us. Whether we win this game or not the team has played some good cricket and we all realize that we have to improve all the time."
The coach agreed with Dravid and said that they would not back out from experimenting with the team.
"We'll do what we need to do. There will be a few steps forward and a few steps back but if we think it's appropriate we'll do it. The results of all the changes we've made will show in the next six months to a year. As we've said earlier these are all long term goals, our focus in on 2007."
As the coach had stated earlier, Virender Sehwag is a huge factor in their plans for the next World Cup. Chappell was effusive in his praise for Sehwag and said that he played pretty well in the last two series.
"Sehwag is playing at number four and now he'll know what's it like batting in the middle-order. It will only help him to be a better batsman.
"What I think is that we haven't seen the best of Sehwag by a long shot. He's on the verge of going to the next level and will play a big part in India's future in both the one-dayers and the Tests."
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