Nigel Si­mon

Neal & Massy Cale­do­nia AIA will start as favourites to se­cure a fourth ti­tle this sea­son when the T&T Pro League Dig­i­cel Pro Bowl kicks off with quar­ter­fi­nal match­es to­mor­row from 6 pm. The ran­dom draw for the eight-team tour­na­ment now in its eighth edi­tion was over­seen by T&T Pro League Chief Ex­ec­u­tive Of­fi­cer Dex­ter Skeene and Wendy Al­leyne, Spon­sor­ship and Pro­mo­tions Man­ag­er, Dig­i­cel T&T Lim­it­ed at Dig­i­cel's Cor­po­rate Box, Queen's Park Oval, St Clair, yes­ter­day. Win­ners of the First Cit­i­zens Cup, T&T Foot­ball Fed­er­a­tion FA Tro­phy and Lu­cozade Sport Goal Shield com­pe­ti­tion (the last two over De­fence Force) al­ready this sea­son, Cale­do­nia comes up against St Ann's Rangers in the first match of a dou­ble-head­er at the Hase­ly Craw­ford Sta­di­um, Mu­cu­rapo from 6 pm.

Four years Cale­do­nia, be­came the first club oth­er than W Con­nec­tion (2004 & 2007) Adams Con­struc­tion San Juan Jabloteh (2005 & 2006) to win the tour­na­ment with a 2-0 shut-out of De­fence Force in the fi­nal, but a year lat­er it lost out to bmo­bile Joe Pub­lic on penal­ties af­ter a 1-1 draw. Joe Pub­lic al­so cap­tured the 2010/2011 edi­tion with a 1-0 win over W Con­nec­tion. How­ev­er, Joe Pub­lic no longer has a team in the league, leav­ing the $100,000 win­ner-take-all ti­tle va­cant. Two hours lat­er at the same Mu­cu­rapo venue, Jabloteh, al­so a run­ner-up in 2004 will look to avenge its 4-1 Lu­cozade Sport Goal Shield semi­fi­nal loss to 2008 fi­nal­ist De­fence Force last month when both teams square off. Down South, a dou­ble-head­er is al­so card­ed for the Man­nie Ramjohn Sta­di­um, Mara­bel­la. Five-time fi­nal­ist W Con­nec­tion meet­ing Po­lice in the open­er while league debu­tantes T&TEC tack­les Di­recTV North East Stars.

The win­ners of the W Con­nec­tion/Po­lice and Rangers/Cale­do­nia match­es will meet in one semi­fi­nal on Fri­day May 11 while the T&TEC/Stars and Jabloteh/De­fence Force win­ners face off in the oth­er for places in the fi­nal which is set for May 18. Dur­ing her brief ad­dress, Al­leyne said this was her com­pa­ny's third year as ti­tle spon­sor of this ex­cit­ing knock­out tour­na­ment and they are thrilled to see how far the com­pe­ti­tion has come.

"Dig­i­cel is proud to part­ner with the T&T Pro League to help cre­ate a plat­form for young men to learn and grow.

Look­ing ahead to the tour­na­ment, Al­leyne said she is invit­ing every­one to come out and sup­port their teams as they vie for the top (Pro Bowl) prize. Skeene, a for­mer na­tion­al de­fend­er was in a cel­e­bra­tive mood dur­ing the launch which he de­scribed as the dawn of a big­ger, bet­ter and brighter era.

He added, "I say that be­cause in my view this is the junc­ture that we are now at in the his­to­ry and evo­lu­tion of the TT Pro League. Skeene's ex­cite­ment stemmed from new dis­cus­sions with Dig­i­cel which is now at the end of a third sea­son part­ner­ship with the T&T Pro­fes­sion­al League. He added, "While I can­not go in­to the de­tails what I can say is that both Dig­i­cel and the Pro League share a com­mon vi­sion and that is to see pro­fes­sion­al foot­ball achieve the sus­tain­able ex­cel­lence that it has the po­ten­tial to so do. But in or­der for us all to re­alise that po­ten­tial we must come out of our re­spec­tive com­fort zones. We must stop the self con­grat­u­la­tion."

DIG­I­CEL PRO BOWL FIX­TURES

To­mor­row (Fri­day May 4)

Quar­ter­fi­nals

Venue: Man­nie Ramjohn Sta­di­um, Mara­bel­la.

W Con­nec­tion vs Po­lice, 6 pm (A)

T&TEC vs North East Stars, 8 pm (C)

Venue: Hase­ly Craw­ford Sta­di­um,Mu­cu­rapo.

Rangers vs Cale­do­nia AIA, 6 pm (D)

Jabloteh vs De­fence Force, 8 pm (B)

Fri­day May 11

Semi­fi­nals:

A vs D

B vs C

Fi­nal: May 18