Minister of Sport Roger Boynes on Thursday assured that a cultural team will be going to Germany for the World Cup.
Boynes’ assurance came one day after the Local Organising Committee for T&T’s World Cup campaign in Germany had announced that it had shelved its cultural initiatives.
“Let me assure the country that a cultural team will go to Germany in June to market our culture. We will stun the world with what we have to offer,” Boynes said in a telephone interview.
Boynes said that within two weeks a World Cup proposal would be going before Parliament.
“Then everything will be revealed to the public; I don’t want to pre-empt or let anything out of the bag before time,” he added.
Asked if it was not too late before the World Cup launch on June 9 to contemplate arrangements for sending a cultural team, Boynes said the Tourism, Sports and Foreign Affairs Ministries had already put all measures in place.
“It is certainly not too late,” he said.
“Our position is that we would utilise the T&T Football Federation groundwork and will get Cabinet’s blessings. All is not lost. We will display our culture for the world to see.”
Boynes declined to give details of the size of the cultural team or its participants, the cost that was likely to be incurred in the project and when the team was expected to leave.
The Local Organising Committee (LOC), which had planned a 130-member cultural contingent that was expected to heighten awareness of T&T before and during the matches, decided on Monday to withdraw from the exercise, citing the Government’s apparent lack of enthusiasm over the drive.
The LOC’s cultural package, which it said was tailored to each city at which the Soca Warriors would play their first-round fixtures, would have included Maximus Dan, Black Stalin, Destra, David Rudder and the Exodus steel orchestra.
The LOC also pledged to take International Soca Monarch Shurwayne Winchester on the tour.
Last week, the news from the LOC of its withdrawal of the cultural contingent did not go down well with some of these artistes.
Contacted on Thursday, Maximus Dan said the Ministries of Culture and Tourism needed to say why the Government was refusing to fund the initiative.
“I am really disappointed and hurt,” he said.
Maximus said that for months he had been planning the once-in-a-lifetime journey and was really looking forward to seeing the Soca Warriors play at the World Cup finals.
Describing himself as a football fanatic, Maximus said that before he was approached by the LOC, he made airline and hotel reservations for the event in Germany.
“Then when this offer came up, I cancelled everything because I thought it was a surety thing. Now I am in a monkey pants because I can’t book a room in Germany at this 11th hour. They messed me up real bad. Words can’t describe the way I am feeling,” he said.