SPORTS MARKETING
SPORTS MARKETING
What Makes For A Winning Combination ?
By Richard Wanjohi
Starter
End of July and two World Cups down , what a year this is turning out to be ! Starting with the more recent one , New Zealand men ’ s and ladies team both took home the butter by winning their respective titles at the Rugby Sevens ’ World Cup held in San Francisco ’ s Bay Area in US .
Analysts had pinned hopes on Fiji or South Africa bringing their circuit experience to bear but that didn ’ t count for anything . Add Kenya ’ s showing at the tournament and yes , dismal at its best – seeing as it were the Shujaa finishing 16th out of the 24 teams .
The other more famous tournament is FIFA ’ s World Cup , this year played in Russia which saw European teams continue their dominance with a 4th win on the trot over the South American and other fancied teams .
This is with the French national team affectionately known as Les Bleus knocking Croatia 4-2 in one of the more entertaining Finals in recent history . Scores of fans across the world have christened this a win for Africa or indeed immigration … that ’ s not for us to say .
In the same period of the month , I was privileged to attend the third Rugby Conference which brings together stakeholders ( sic ) in the game of rugby within the country held at the Strathmore University . The theme of the sitting was aptly named ‘ The Challenge of Winning ’ – as christened by the host sports body Kenya Rugby Union .
This conference came on the back of a successful season 2017-18 for the Union which saw Kenya finish in the top 8 of the
In today ’ s sporting world , while the natural talent and flair may count for much , sports science shows that investing in the right nutrition , right training regime , right core competencies and attitude can go a long way in nurturing and growing nascent talent . rugby series , the Kenyan women ’ s team win the Rugby Africa tournament , the 15-a-side team inching closer to a World Cup place in 2019 – all well and done for a sports association .
These 3 events got me thinking of what makes a winning combination . Does it come from a strong team riding roughshod over its opponents ? Does it come from the scientific approach that have seen technology and other aspects of sports science come into play ? Is it sheer luck or hunches by the respective team managers and team leaders ? Let ’ s take a deep dive !
Talent Vs Team
In the now famous 2018 World Cup Final , football purists got their minds warped as the favoured teams started falling out as early as the first round . The Finals had a premiere appearance by the Croatian team . The tournament had only one game which went goalless , missing out on the goals scored thanks to the exhausting extra-time games in the knock-out phases .
Many pundits attributed the fall of Argentina , Germany and even African teams on the lack of integration of the wealth of talent into the team structure . To paraphrase renowned management consultant Sunny Bindra in his weekly column , “… to win in football ( or any
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