BBA secures coach Fakuda
In their endeavour to grow Badminton in the country, the sport’s governing mother-body, Botswana Badminton Association (BBA) have announced a partnership with Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), and according to the mouthpiece of the association, Thobo Tshosa, JICA has provided them with an expert coach, Keita Fakuda, who will assist in developing the game locally and also take charge of the national team assignments.
“They have agreed to give us a volunteer coach who will be with us for a period of two years and will share with us his expertise from grassroots development to senior teams’ assignments. We haven’t had a strong senior team for a while now so we are expecting some improvements, we are hoping to have a strong youth develop programs which will be smoothly integrated in the senior teams and help elevate our standards in the continent. We are expecting him to travel across the country and unearth new talents and set up develop programs, including capacitating the local coaches,” Tshosa outlined.
Three years ago, BBA officials presented the local Japanese embassy with a proposal outlining their strategic development plan and how the JICA program could provide a final piece of the jig-saw to transform the association and have it be listed amongst the very best in Africa.
JICA was established for the purpose of supporting socioeconomic development, recovery or economic stability of developing regions—its three main development aid tools include; technical assistance, concessionary loans (Japanese ODA loans) and grant aid.
After their recent consultative meeting with its members, president of the association, Modisaotsile Badubi, announced some partnerships they have forged with various entities amongst them, the JICA program.
In their (JICA) statement, shared with BBA, resident representative of
JICA to Botswana, Hiroyuki Takada indicated that, “JICA is pleased to inform you that your requested volunteer will be arriving on January 25, 2024 from Japan to commence their assignment with your organization.”
The statement further confirmed that JICA will incur the costs for the coach’s hospitality and also noted that he will be taken through Setswana language classes which will enable him to smoothly communicate with local players.
It is the first time badminton will benefit from the JICA program, other local sports codes including softball have enjoyed fruitful partnerships with JICA, a move which saw both women and men senior Botswana Softball Association (BSA) teams qualify for the WBSC finals in recent years.
BBA are yet to share their calendar of events for this year but there are strong expectations that the UB Open, Shuttle Time program and Botswana international events will once more take the leading position in terms of local competitions in 2024.