India won’t rush players back despite facilities opening Former F1 champion Brabham still in a class of his own

India’s cricketers will not be rushed back into training even after the country gave the green light for sports facilities to open, the national cricket board has said.

India has extended a nationwide lockdown to May 31 as it tries to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus, and while stadiums and sports complexes are reopening to allow athletes to train, there will be no events staged that would draw spectators.

With travel and other restrictions in place, the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) said they would wait before scheduling any training camp for its contracted players.

“... the safety and well-being of its athletes and support staff is paramount and (it) will not rush into any decision that can hamper or jeopardise India’s efforts in containing the spread of the virus,” BCCI treasurer Arun Singh Dhumal said in a statement late on Sunday. India are scheduled to tour Sri Lanka in June for a limited-overs series but that trip is likely to be postponed due to the pandemic.

India’s cricketers have been cooling their heels at home during the lockdown, which has seen the Indian Premier League postponed indefinitely.

Dhumal said last week the BCCI were looking for a new window for the Twenty20 league later in the year to avoid a potential US$530mil (RM2.3bil) loss. Jack Brabham (pic) remains in a class of his own as the only man to have won the Formula One championship as a driver and constructor, and he also stood out for securing his first title on foot.

Leading the season–ending 1959 US Grand Prix at Florida’s Sebring Raceway, Brabham coasted to a halt some 90m short of the chequered flag when his Cooper ran out of fuel on the last lap.

The Australian stepped out, removed helmet and goggles and, despite the dehydration and physical near-exhaustion of 350km of racing, began the uphill push.

Under the complicated scoring system of the time, Brabham would have emerged as champion anyway due to the results of others but he was competitive to the core and the calculations could wait.

“My heart was pounding. It was hot and humid. I was aware of marshals around me, urging me on,” he recalled in an autobiography published in 2004.

“I could hear the crowd shouting, cheering, and clapping. I’m told they went wild. Motorcycle cops arrived. It was really bizarre. Here I was trying to push my Formula One car to the finish of the world championship–deciding grand prix, with a motorcycle escort.”

Brabham, who had pushed his car to the line in Monaco two years earlier, finished fourth to become the first Australian Formula One champion while New Zealander Bruce McLaren celebrated a first win. The title was also the first in a rear–engined car.

Brabham, who was knighted for services to motorsport in 1979 and died at the age of 88 at his Gold Coast home in 2014, won the title again in 1960 and 1966 – the last at the wheel of a Ron Tauranac– designed Brabham.

The trail blazed by the son of a Hurstville greengrocer would be followed by Alan Jones, world champion in 1980, and race winners Mark Webber and Daniel Ricciardo.

Brabham made his debut in Britain in 1955 and the last win came at the 1970 South African Grand Prix, after which, aged 44 and with 126 races behind him, the triple champion retired to Australia.

The now-defunct team was sold to future Formula One supremo Bernie Ecclestone while Ron Dennis, Brabham’s erstwhile chief mechanic, went on to transform McLaren.

As much an engineer as a racing driver, with wartime experience as ground crew in the Royal Australian Air Force, Brabham was never one to hog the limelight or seek attention.—