Mumbai, Mar.23 (ANI): Regan Walters has protected movie stars, royalty and Bill Gates. And now, during the Cricket World Cup, he is protecting the Black Caps.
He had been involved in firefights in his native South Africa and fought competitively in mixed martial arts.
He was present in the Taj Hotel in Mumbai on November 26, 2008 when Pakistan-based terrorists attacked it.
Walters realised instantly, when the glass walls of the Taj's Souk restaurant started shaking, that this was something different.
What he didn't know, looking out the window toward's Mumbai's India Gate, watching the muzzle flashes of unseen automatic weapons, was that this was the beginning of a three-day terrorist siege on India's commercial hub.
When it was over 164 people would be dead. Three hundred more would be injured. Walters had only been in India for two hours.
It was his first visit where he was to work at the eventually cancelled 2008 ICC Champion's League.
Sitting in the restaurant with 150 other guests, Walters and six other members of the personal security company he belonged to, were faced with a choice.
"We had a decision. We decided let's get out of here," stuff.co.nz quoted him, as saying.alters is responsible for keeping the New Zealand cricket team safe.
A partner for the security firm he works for, Nicholls, Steyn and Associates, Walters' presence at Black Caps' practice sessions and in the team's hotel lobbies is difficult to ignore.
Walters looks, somewhat appropriately, like an action hero - a Vin Diesel with a Durban drawl.
He reads magazines about the latest automatic pistols and recently bought a leather-bound copy of Sun Tsu's Art of War to sit above the samurai swords in his home.
"I am a warrior," Walters said.
He ticks off mental boxes - making sure the police do adequate bomb sweeps of the Black Caps' buses and making sure those buses never stop en route. "They don't stop for anyone."
He accompanies the team everywhere. He calls them "his guys" and each night does a sweep of the hotel to make sure he knows where they all are.
Walters met the team in Dubai airport before flying to India for the start of the tournament.
He already knew captain Daniel Vettori from when he worked with IPL team the Delhi Daredevils.
After two days he was building up mental profiles of each team member to understand better where they might be at any one time.
It is a meticulous job - not one for a drinker or a partier. Walters is neither.
Walters has been in the business since he was 22 when he was asked to protect a South African minister who had a death threat on his life. (ANI)
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