'Indian team never chartered a plane for return'

Indian team's spokesperson MK Sridhar rubbishes reports they had chartered a plane to fly back home in case Bhajji was not exonerated.

An Indian cricket team official on Wednesday rubbished reports that they had chartered a plane to fly back home on Tuesday, in case Harbhajan Singh was not exonerated from the racial slur charges.

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Dismissing the reports, MK Sridhar, team's spokesperson, said after arriving in Melbourne on Wednesday that there was no such plan. India will take on Australia in a Twnety20 match at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) on Friday.

"I do not know where that came from," he said at Melbourne airport. "There was no thinking like that at all."

Referring to Harbhajan's acquittal from the racial abuse charges against Andrew Symonds, Sridhar said that the team was looking forward to the upcoming one-day series against Australia and Sri Lanka.

"After what happened yesterday (Tuesday), we're going forward so that the game goes on," he said.

The one-day series looked in jeopardy after India had threatened to pull out in the wake of racial abuse charges on Harbhajan during the Sydney Test.

Harbhajan was acquitted of the racial abuse charges on Tuesday and was instead found guilty of verbal abuse that would mean deduction of 50 per cent of his match fee.