Less Talk, More Action

While looking for something else, I stumbled upon this article with its bold headline and laughed out loud. While I continue to support the West Indies cricket team, albeit in a diminished capacity, their actions in the past several months by way of their performance, have not buoyed me and more importantly have not convinced me that their captain's pronouncement is anything but laughable.

Of course the Australians are beatable. I am not disputing that at all. No team is invincible. Can THIS West Indies team beat them? Sigh. Let's just say, I got a couple emails from relatives abroad who also read the article, and they too LOL'ed in their offices.

What I want from my cricket team and its skipper (note I did not say MY skipper, cause I am not a fan of Mr Christopher Gayle) is less talk and more action.

It ties back to my previous entry, where less is also definitely  in business. It's no longer about words and press releases, ads and mission statements. These mean nothing if there is nothing solid behind them. For example, what good is a corporate mission statement about being a leading provider of a service, if your service is universally horrendous, and customers slam your brand as a result? It becomes just a statement in a pretty frame hanging on a wall. What steps are companies taking to ensure that what they are promoting to the outside world is indeed the reality?

And, in terms of social media, there are companies which are setting up Web 2.0 "communities" which attract many of their customers, but the communication somehow falls flat. There is feedback via many outlets, and none of the feedback is incorporated to enhance the customer experience so the community becomes a talk shop and an ideas graveyard. Some communicator are hearing, but are they listening, and more importantly, doing?

Companies cannot hope to create content for social media without collaborating with the persons for whom the content is being created. Ideas and suggestions live via this new media and marketers would be wise to start paying close attention to what is being said out there. The paradigm shift is clear - more and more consumers are defining products and services, and the content they want on blogs and social networking sites, and marketing and comms peeps need to step up to the plate, not just support social media conversations but bring them to life. Quite simply, we need to walk the talk.

And a brand defined, not by its idealistic, chest-beating public statements, but by its "laughable" reality can never really stand the test of time or boast of superior loyalty from its audience. I hope one day Mr Gayle and his band of merry boys will understand this, if they even care.

Photo: Cricket Australia

5 comments:

Kevin said...

Ooooooh... we disagree on a lot here...

Where do we agree?... Well it appears that we both don't like Gayle. I gather that we both don't think he should be captain.

We both agree that most companies just don't get social media. I think that's it.

First of all, I would say that THIS West Indies team (well maybe not so much now that Bravo is injured) has the best chance of beating THIS Australian team than any other in the last 5 years or so. Despite AND because of the captain.

I think that we are not alone in not wanting Gayle as captain (heck, it's one of a very few things that I agree with Anil Roberts on)... I don't think that the WICB really wants Gayle as el capitan either. One thing is certain though... those players certainly want Gayle as captain, and you can see that they rally behind him both on and off the field... both for good and for bad.

That makes him a good captain. On the other hand, he is a TERRIBLE captain in terms of technical and tactical acumen, and is also not the best example in terms of behaviour. That makes him a bad captain

But is there anyone else who can properly do the job?

Anyways, back to the point, this team went to Australia on an acknowledged hiding to nothing... they were expected to lose... badly. After the first test, people in Australia were saying that this was the worst team ever... how a 3-0 was a certainty... that the only question was how long each game would last. What happened then? In the second test, the match was drawn... we actually had a good chance of winning that one, and in the third test, when it seemed like we were in for a dramatic cut tail, we came back and were agonisingly close to victory. And who was the talisman? Captain Gayle.

With that kind of performance then, of course I say that THIS West Indies side can beat THIS Aussie side. Whether it actually does remains to be seen.

Further, I don't think that Mr Gayle issued a press release to the media (i would really be surprised if that was the case. The way that i understand that things run in the sporting world, either a press conference is called and the team officials talk to the media, or the team officials are made available to the media for interviews etc. It is part of their duty. Having read the article, i don't agree that Mr Gayle is chest beating. He is saying what any other captain would say, and he is right.... we do have match winners in our side, we can beat Australia. They will be hard to beat Even if it were the case that we had no chance, i would hardly expect him to come out and say, "well as you know we going to get licks, so don't get your hopes up".

The way that professional sports is these days, you have to make yourself available to the media any say things.

I can't see that it would be reasonable for MR Gayle to say "I'm not saying anything now, we'll do our talking on the field", because that is even more chest beating than saying we have a good chance, which is what he had said here.

BTW he has already begun doing the field talking thing...

trinidarlin said...

Okay, I think we have our wires crossed on the chest beating thing and the media. I understand his role as captain and talking to the media. I am just referring to the statement in general and not how he went about saying it, whether it was a press release, press conference...who cares? The point I was trying to make is simply that the statement was made, from a less than remarkable vantage point, esp with some of his key players out of action, a less than spectacular track record of late, and especially because this is nothing new being said. What would be new is if they back it up with a solid performance and actually beat someone. I think fans are tired of all this ole talk and being "agonisingly close to victory". Agonisingly close, no matter how close, is still not victory.I cannot speak for other fans, but me...I am tired of the repeated, monotonous inferences to winning and getting no winning.

I was really not about him though. I was really linking it to work. He was simply a means to an end in this case.

trinidarlin said...

And not even him so much...just WI cricket in general. It's a general comment on backing up what you say, with what you do and how you do it. Not an entry about cricket.

Unknown said...

So the series is over, (and my ears still ringing from the megaphone delivered "I told you so"). I knew things were bad when Captain Gayle predicted a 4-1 thrashing for the Aussies before a ball was bowled. That more than the Australia are beatable comment confirmed that we were doomed to suffer.

Teams that regularly make stupid statements like that generally get a good cut arse (see Tony Grieg in 1976, Brett Lee 2005).

To round off matters, Captain Courageous says that he is tired of being a one man show... how do you say this in the middle of a tour... even Captain Arrogant (Lara) who was far and away more talented than anyone else on the team never said such a moronic statement.

What an idiot. I not vex because we loss you know. I vex because that man so stupid, he make me look stupid too.

Moron.

By the way, we did win 4-1... in the tosses.

trinidarlin said...

lol. Captain Courageous. lol.

Boy, doh ever let Chris Gayle make you look stupid eh. It's NOT a good look!

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