Background
In 2017, New Zealand’s under 19 men’s basketball team, the Junior Tall Blacks, competed in the FIBA U19 Basketball World Cup in Cairo, Egypt. Families and coaches were concerned about the potential risks in travelling to this relatively unstable part of the world.
Challenges and solutions
Mann & Associates’ task was to maintain the safety and security of these young sportspeople, without inhibiting their enjoyment of the experience.
We took a three-pronged approach. This involved gaining a first-hand understanding of the risk environment, reassuring the parents about the effectiveness of the risk mitigation, and educating the players in safe behaviours.
Calling on our experience and contacts from twelve years of working in the Middle East, a security expert was deployed to Cairo ahead of the tournament. This on-the-ground appraisal of the accommodation, tournament facilities, transport arrangements and other logistics enabled an effective risk-mitigation strategy to be formulated.
We attended the team’s pre-departure briefing, where players, parents and Basketball New Zealand representatives could all discuss issues or concerns. Through our familiarity with the Cairo environment we were able to provide players with guidelines on accepted behaviours and situational awareness that would maximise their safety and be less likely to attract attention.
The risk mitigation strategy, and the player awareness session, served to build parental confidence in the safety of the trip. To close the loop, a group communications channel and process was established and tested. In addition, we developed reactive crisis media points for use in the unlikely event that an incident should occur.