Sports Presenter Matthew Walker Interviews Chris Woakes at The Viceroy 1977 Launch, Kia Oval
Matthew Walker hosted and moderated the launch of The Viceroy 1977 at the Kia Oval in London, conducting a live on-stage moderated conversation between brand founder Rakesh Rathod and England international and World Cup winner Chris Woakes, followed by filmed interviews on the Oval pitch itself. It was one of the most distinctive sports partnership moderation events of the year, combining a premium brand launch with world-class sporting talent at one of cricket's most iconic grounds.
The brand
The Viceroy 1977 is a modern spirits house that brings together the precision of Scottish distillation with the warmth and richness of Indian hospitality. Its inaugural release, Monsoon Heat Gin, was awarded Double Gold in both the Contemporary and Ultra-Premium flights at the Global Gin Masters 2026, a remarkable achievement for a brand at launch stage. Founded by Rakesh Rathod, The Viceroy 1977 is built on a philosophy of grit, craftsmanship, and an unyielding standard of excellence, values that found their natural embodiment in brand ambassador Chris Woakes.
Chris Woakes's connection to the Kia Oval runs deep. As an England international and World Cup winner, he has played some of the defining moments of his career on that ground. His own description of walking out at The Oval with his arm in a sling, putting everything on the line for the team, captures something essential about what The Viceroy 1977 stands for. The choice of venue for the launch was not incidental. It was the only choice that made complete sense.
The role of the sports presenter and moderator
Events of this kind require a very specific skill set from the host. A brand launch featuring a world-class athlete as brand ambassador is not a standard corporate event, and it is not a standard sports event. It sits at the intersection of the two, and the presenter or moderator at the centre of it needs to be equally fluent in both worlds.
As a sports presenter with over 15 years of experience at the highest levels of sport, including Formula 1, the Milano Cortina Winter Olympics, Premier League football, and international boxing, Matthew Walker brought genuine sporting credibility to the evening. As an experienced brand and corporate moderator with credits including Anthropic, Dunnhumby, Deloitte, and HPE at the Winter Olympics, he brought the business and brand intelligence to draw out the story of The Viceroy 1977 in a way that felt compelling rather than promotional. The combination of those two skill sets is precisely what sports partnership moderation demands, and precisely what made the evening work.
The evening
The launch took place across the India Suite and the Oval itself. Matthew opened the evening on stage, introducing The Viceroy 1977, setting the context for the brand story, and establishing the tone for what followed. Rakesh and Chris were then invited to stage for a live moderated conversation that wove together the founding vision behind the brand and the career of its ambassador.
The conversation moved naturally between the heritage and craft behind Monsoon Heat Gin, the values that connect a premium spirits brand to an elite sporting career, and the personal story of both men behind the partnership. The moderation kept the conversation genuine and specific rather than generic and promotional, finding the points where the brand's story and Chris Woakes's career genuinely intersected and allowing those moments to breathe in front of the audience.
That is the craft of sports partnership moderation at its most effective: not steering a conversation toward a predetermined destination, but creating the conditions for something authentic to emerge. When a founder and a world-class athlete share real values, the moderator's job is to make those values visible. The audience at the Kia Oval experienced exactly that.
On camera at the Oval
The evening extended beyond the live stage event to include filmed content for The Viceroy 1977's social media channels. Matthew conducted a filmed interview with Chris Woakes with the Oval pitch as the backdrop, one of the most recognisable settings in world cricket, drawing out the personal and professional story behind his involvement with the brand in a format built for digital audiences.
A second, more relaxed on-camera conversation between Rakesh and Chris followed in the same location, with Matthew in a subtly moderated role, guiding the exchange as both men looked out over the ground. The approach across both pieces mirrored the live moderation: conversational, specific, and built around the genuine connection between the brand story and the sporting career rather than a scripted promotional narrative.
That filmed content will be released across The Viceroy 1977's YouTube, Instagram, and other platforms in the coming weeks. For a sports presenter and moderator, the ability to work seamlessly across both live event and filmed formats is an increasingly valuable skill, and one that The Viceroy 1977 launch demonstrated clearly.
What sports partnership moderation looks like at its best
The Viceroy 1977 launch at the Kia Oval is a strong example of what the sports partnership moderation format can achieve when all the elements are aligned: a brand with a genuine story, an athlete with authentic values, a venue with real significance, and a moderator and sports presenter with the credibility and skill to bring it all together in front of an audience.
The measure of an evening like this is not the applause on the night. It is what happens in the days that follow. The conversations that continue. The content that reaches new audiences. And the relationships that deepen as a result of a launch that delivered everything it set out to achieve.
If you are planning a brand launch, sports partnership event, or filmed moderation and want to discuss how Matthew Walker can help make it exceptional as a sports presenter and moderator, get in touch at matthew@thestandoutcompany.com or call +44 (0)207 088 8085.