Australia's women's basketball team, the Opals, are prepared for any backlash in Serbia where they are due to contest a FIBA World Cup qualifying tournament.
Basketball Australia (BA) has conducted a risk analysis ahead of the tour – as it does before any international trip — but this one takes on extra significance given the Australian government's recent decision to cancel the visa of Serbia's number one sporting icon, Novak Djokovic.
Australia's tough stance on border control and previous requirement for travellers to quarantine is the reason the event is being held in Serbia and not Australia, with the world governing body rejecting Australia's bid to host the event in part because of Australia's COVID "complexities".
There are just over 240 days to go until Australia hosts the women's basketball World Cup, with the potential that some nations who qualify will be negatively impacted by Australia's vaccination mandate.
FIBA executive director David Crocker said Serbia was selected to host two pools of February's qualifying tournament alongside the USA and Japan.
"All had their own different approach to hosting … when it comes down to it the complexity in those three countries wasn't the same as Australia," Crocker told The Ticket.
"Over the last 18 months, we've delivered over 100 bubble events all over the world. We have very good protocols, very good systems in place for the arrival of players but at the end of the day it is the government policy that we have to work with."
Serbian president Aleksander Vucic has said his country "will not mistreat" visiting Australian athletes and "will show we are better than the Australian government".
Chairman of Basketball Australia John Carey said he had taken heart from the president's words.
"Yeah, that is very encouraging," he told The Ticket.
"That will flow down to the Serbian Basketball Federation, as well, and I'm also taking comfort from the fact that some of our players have come out publicly and said they're pretty keen to get there and compete.
"We've had historically a very good competitive relationship with Serbian basketball teams and we're almost certain that will continue."
Whether crowds adopt such a conciliatory approach is yet to be seen.
Opal Jade Melbourne has faith in the support structure put in place around the team heading to Serbia.
"I don't care too much about it really…I trust BA to put a really good security team in place and I'm sure our visas will be correct, and our documentation will be on point," she said.
Fellow squad member Sam Whitcomb said she expected the basketball fraternity in Serbia to be welcoming with perhaps only the odd exception.
Team-mate Darcee Garbin believes the team will be safe 'for sure'.
"I know that we're going to do all the right things, follow all the protocols and guidelines put in place so I'm not too concerned about that," she said.
Australia to continue 'hard-line' stance to vaccination at World Cup
Preparations for Sydney's hosting of the women's World Cup later this year are well advanced but the government's approach to the vaccination status of visiting athletes is creating an additional layer of complexity.
There is a possibility that one or more nations who qualify for the World Cup will be from countries with limited access to COVID vaccines.
Mali and Nigeria are two nations competing at the upcoming qualification tournament in Serbia alongside Australia. In both African countries, less than three per cent of the population is vaccinated.
Nelson Mandela's eldest granddaughter, Ndeleka Mandela, has described the hoarding of vaccines by rich, western nations as "vaccine apartheid".
The changing landscape of the COVID pandemic, and shifting regulations in Australian states and territories, means sports organisers must consider every option while stuck in a holding pattern not knowing what will happen next.
The Basketball Australia chairman described it as "a bit of a moving feast".
"For the purposes of our World Cup tournament we've established a COVID committee which is in constant communication with FIBA and our government," Carey said.
"Vaccination status is one thing I can see changing as the virus mutates and boosters might become mandatory.
"It's a risk for fans as well; we want as many people from wherever they're from to come over and watch the spectacle.
"When you're the host of a tournament that only happens every four years, and it's a worldwide event in one of the most popular sports in the world, you've got to be over all this.
"The virus is going to do what the virus does, and to that extent it's hard to be proactive and not reactive on some occasions, but we're doing pretty well."
FIBA's approach with all its member nations is to 'heavily encourage' vaccination but it understands not all nations are equal when it comes to access to vaccines.
When it comes to staging international tournaments though, "it's the government policy which takes precedence," says Crocker.
"We will work with the Australian government and the LOC [local organising committee], and we hope that we have very few issues around this matter but at the end of the day we are heavily encouraging these players to be vaccinated.
"We've been agile all around the countries that we've worked with to find sensible solutions where we can."
As host nation, the Opals have already qualified for the World Cup but will get to measure themselves against some of their potential opponents in Serbia's qualifying tournament from February 10-13.
