By Rahul TawarLUDHIANA: City-based sports enthusiasts are eagerly waiting for the sports calendar of 2018 — meant for organizing various sports activities at district or block level throughout the financial year.Sportspersons across the city have welcome the move as with the non-availability of sports calendar, they don’t get to know about the exact dates of the district level tournament which falls in the upcoming months. This affects their preparation for the tournament.Last year too, the sports department had not released the sports calendar on time and a lot of this players suffered and could not perform their best.Speaking with some of the government coaches on the condition of anonymity, they said that the sports department should release the sports calendar as early as possible because only then can a sportsperson plan his practice and prepare well for the tournament.When asked about the non-release of the sports calendar, some of the association members shared their displeasure and blamed the department.Teja Singh Dhaliwal, general secretary of basketball association, said, “Due to the delay, government coaches could not organise even a single tournament for local sports enthusiasts.”“Government coaches are also waiting for the release of the sports calendar so that they can hold some district level competitions which further help the player to bring more improvement in their game,” Dhaliwal said.District sport officer (DSO) Kartar Singh Sahmbay told TOI, “A notification regarding the release of sports calendar for 2018 will soon be sent to senior authorities of Chandigarh.”The calendar will be released next month keeping in mind the upliftment sports enthusiast in the city. One of the major reasons behind the delay is that we have been gathering data from all sports association members and this process always takes some time, Sahmbay said.

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