All preparations for grand 73rd  B N Mallik memorial all India Police Football championship has been completed by the Tripura police for the historic sporting event , which will begin from February 24, where altogether 45 teams including 9 women teams will participate in five grounds in different parts of the state,

Addressing a press conference at Police Headquarters in Agartala on Friday evening, DGP Amitabh Ranjan accompanied by senior police officials said that this is for the first time Tripura will host a senior level police tournament, which will continue up to March 7th next.

He said that different departments of the state government extended their helping hands for the grand championship in five different synthetic turf football grounds.

He said that in the 73rd BN Mallik all India police football championship, altogether 43 teams including teams from BSF, CRPF, RPF, CISF will participate. Among them 36 are men football teams  and 9 women football teams of police will participate and matches will be played at Umakanta mini stadium, Tulabagan stadium of Mohanpur, Sachindra Colony ground at Jirania, Jampuijala football ground and Chandrapur ground in Udaipur.

DGP said that till Friday evening, a total of 31 teams have already arrived at the state capital and rest teams will on Saturday. He said that on February 24th morning, Chief Minister Dr Manik Saha will inaugurate the championship during a grand opening ceremony at Umakanta stadium in Agartala.

Among the 45 teams, 25 are state police teams, 4 from union territories and seven teams are from central forces including from BSF, CRPF, RPF, CISF etc, said Yadav and added that some players who participated at international level will participate in the game.

Altogether 120 matches will be played during the championship including 81 matches for men teams and 21 matches for women teams and all the knock-out matches will be played at Agartala, said DGP. He said that few matches will be played in flood lights and in the inaugural match will be played between last year’s champion team of Mizoram with Uttar Pradesh.

A total of 40 referees will conduct these matches and football lovers can enjoy all the matches without any tickets, said DGP and urges football lovers of the state to participate in these matches. Tripura police is very much optimistic over winning of both men and women teams of state police, said Yadav.

It may be recalled here that the prestigious tournament, named after B.N. Mullik, a former Director of the Intelligence Bureau, is a significant event in India's police sports calendar, bringing together police teams from across the country to compete in football matches.