President Robert Richards and past president of the Jamaica Badminton Association Vishu Tolan will depart the island this weekend to attend the AGM of the Badminton World Federation to be held in New Dehli, India.

Tolan, who is a current vice-president of the Pan-American region, has been nominated by the JBA to go and retain this post. Richards, who was a dominant figure both as a player and administrator, will be representing Jamaica’s interest at this meeting. Some of what Richards will have on his agenda are as follows:

* To meet with Thomas Lund (COO) of the BWF to firm up plans to have rights given to SportsMax to have Badminton content shown locally and regionally.

* Push for more funding for the Caribbean region.

* Roaming coach for the region broken into Northern and Southern region.

* To discuss the future and rebuilding of the Caribbean Regional Badminton Confederation (CAREBACO) with all the other Caribbean presidents attending.

* Forge alliances with top badminton nations to get a national coach for Jamaica for at least one year.

* Negotiate to see if Jamaica can have two of the nation’s top male players in Gareth Henry and Samuel Ricketts join overseas-based programmes to train and compete.

* Try and organise some top players to come to Jamaica for exhibition matches to try and heighten the awareness of the sport, as well as generate some well-needed funds for the association.

Tolan will depart the island today, while Richards will depart on Monday.