New World Squash Federation President N Ramachandran has acted swiftly to strengthen the management of the WSF in the lead-up to the sport’s bid to be selected to join the Olympic Games programme in 2016.

"Restoring the level of services to Member National Federations is a top priority and we need to strengthen the support of the office administration by both the Management Committee as well as Committee Directors," said Ramachandran, who succeeded Jahangir Khan as President at the WSF AGM last month.

Former Vice President Frank van Loon has accepted an invitation to be co-opted onto the Management Committee, thus spreading the load further and allowing for greater continuity, especially in the key area of overseeing finance.

Furthermore, the experienced former WSF employee Lorraine Harding has accepted an offer to return to the Federation as ‘Operations Manager’ to manage the office from the start of January 2009.  Ms Harding succeeds Administration Manager Tracy Langton-Jones who has decided to seek pastures new.

"The new Management Committee will have a meeting shortly in Chennai to plan our overall strategy,” added Ramachandran.  “Our overall priority will be the plans to support former Emeritus President Susie Simcock in leading the Olympic vote campaign - plus getting every Member Nation focussed on contacting their Olympic Committee members to further raise support for Squash."