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BECAUSE the Digicel Cup is not on the international football calendar, Trinidad and Tobago will be fielding a team consisting mainly of locally-based player who campaign in the T&T Pro League during the competition.

Mixing in with the locals will be MLS players such as Cornell Glen and Avery John, who are on a season break and several other players who have not yet got their chance to impress national coach Bertille St Clair during the current World cup campaign.

Team officials saw that clubs from Europe are under no obligation to release the overseas-based pros for the Digicel Cup, so T&T will likely be without the likes of Shaka Hislop, Marvin Andrews, Stern John, Dennis Lawrence, Andre Boucard, Ian Cox, Brent Sancho, Clayton Ince, Brent Rahim, Kenwyne Jones and Kelvin Jack. But their absence is not necessarily being viewed as a bad thing, since it is believed that there is enough local talent around to field a strong team in the competition.

T&T will open their campaign in the Caribbean Football Union (CFU) 2004 Digicel Cup against minnows Puerto Rico on November 24. The tournament, which is being held to choose the Caribbean football champions, will see T&T hosting Group D, also involving Suriname and Grenada.

After the preliminary Group D competition, the winners and runners-up will then enter a second round of competition from December 12-19 involving the winners and runners-up of all four CFU groups. Already through to the second round are St Lucia, Cuba, and St Kitts & Nevis.

Meanwhile, the T&T national senior football team will go into action on Wednesday from 7 p.m. at the Hasely Crawford Stadium against St Vincent & the Grenadines in the final game of the CONCACAF Group C World Cup qualifying competition. T&T need just a draw to reach the final round of World cup qualifying, while St Vincent & the Grenadines need to win by three clear goals.