During the global Coronavirus pandemic, the art of bringing virtual sporting content to the masses has been one where legends have failed to make an impact while others have thrived. The outbreak of COVID-19 has forced everyone through a prism and viewing some through the aftereffects of simply chatting from home has highlighted just how many of our favourite sports stars are kept interesting by Media and PR outlets determined to do so to turn a profit.
Think of some of the English Premier League’s finest, reduced to entertainment rubble by the sheer force of personality of James Maddison. For fans of the Foxes midfielder, it was agonizing when his signal dropped and his image froze. For some of his contemporaries, sat mute on their sofas throughout, it was imperceptible if their WiFi crashed.
Tennis hasn’t been immune to this. Andy Murray was great to watch during the recent Virtual Madrid Open where he crushed the field laughing at himself and others while doing so. But for some others, it was just as easy to forget that they were even playing.
Cut to the action this weekend, then, and an organized chat between two of tennis’ most entertaining big hitters in Andy Murray and Nick Kyrgios. There was only one problem with the Instagram Live session – the kick-off time. While Murray was opening up the app and connecting to the video-sharing stream at 3pm his time in the U.K., Kyrgios was booting up at 12 midnight in Oz.