panaji union sports minister anurag thakur has asked states to host the national games as scheduled and not prompt delays that could cost sportspersons their careersnational games are of great significance and for any sportsperson even one year is of great importance for them since it makes or breaks their career thakur told toi on sunday its very important for sportspersons to have regular national games competition and events it provides them with a chance to showcase their calibrethe union sports minister was in goa for the wtt star contender table tennis finals and took time off to interact with ioa officials who are in the state in check preparedness for the oftpostponed national gamesthe last edition of the national games was hosted by gujarat in 2022 more than seven years after kerala in 2015gujarat volunteered to host the 36th edition of the national games at short notice just four months to be precise after inordinate delays in goa forced the indian olympic association ioa to look at alternative venuesthe games return to goa for the 37th edition which is expected to be held later this yeari am grateful that goa is ready to host the national games the ioa team is already here to do the inspection and after the grand success of the wtt event i am sure goa will be up and ready to host many in the future he said last years national games in gujarat was a grand success now goa is ready providing a chance to thousands of players an opportunity to participate perform and move up the ladder they can create national records the national games are scheduled to be held once every four years but the last few editions have seen long delaysgoa for example signed the host city contract in 2008 to host the games in 2011 but delays elsewhere meant the 36th edition the state was allotted to host could technically be held only after kerala were done with the 35th edition in 2015goa said it would host the games in 2016 but has since been unable to complete the infrastructure necessary to host the multidiscipline eventour infrastructure is now ready state sports minister govind gaude said on sunday the state government and senior ioa officials held a meeting to discuss plans for hosting of the games in the next three days ioa officials will visit major venues and then prepare a detailed reportthe ioa delegation includes executive committee member ioa and games technical conduct committee gtcc chairman amitabh sharma ioa treasurer sahdev yadav and ioa and gtcc members harpal singh and bhupinder singh bajwa