The 2019 Cricket World Cup is looming and soon the sport’s biggest stars will descend upon England and Wales to take part in the flagship event of the international cricket calendar.
Cricket gets something of a bad rap outside of its massive fan base, with the sport and its participants lazily being labelled as ‘boring’ but a quick delve into some of its biggest stars’ social media profiles show they’re anything but. In fact, some have bigger followings than some of the biggest musicians, actors and politicians on the planet.
1. Virat Kohli
The Cristiano Ronaldo of cricket, India’s Virat Kohli is widely regarded as one of the best batsmen in the world and is ranked by ESPN as one of the world’s most popular athletes and by Forbes as one of the most valuable athlete brands.
Kohli boasts a whopping 34.3 million followers on Instagram, which, to put into perspective, is over 10-million more than former American President Barack Obama and only a million short of Lady Gaga.
Simply put, they don’t get much bigger than Kohli in this game.
Bigger Than: Barack Obama, Snoop Dogg, Sergio Ramos, Will Smith, Leonardo DiCaprio
2. Sachin Tendulkar
Often considered the greatest batsmen of all-time and the highest run scorer in International cricket history, if Kohli is the Ronaldo of this game, Tendulkar is Pelé.
The fact that his nicknames include ‘God of Cricket’, ‘Little Master’ and ‘Master Blaster’ should say something about the former World Cup winner and even in retirement Tendulkar boasts a huge social media following, with 14.8 million Instagram followers.
Bigger Than: Serena Williams, John Cena, Roger Federer
3. MS Dhoni
Another one of India’s cricketing powerhouses, Mahendra Singh Dhoni is considered one of the greatest finishers in limited-overs cricket and one of the best wicketkeepers in the world.
The 37-year-old holds the record for most wins by an Indian captain in Tests, ODIs & T20Is and most back-to-back wins by an Indian captain in ODIs so it’s no wonder he’s so popular in his native country as well as among cricket fans as a whole, resulting in 13.5 million Instagram followers
Bigger Than: Anthony Joshua, Tyson Fury and Deontay Wilder combined
4. Rohit Sharma
In an article published by India’s Forbes in 2005, Rohit Sharma was listed as the 8th most famous person in the country and the 46th richest, so it comes as no surprise that the Mumbai Indians captain would make an appearance on this list
The only skipper to lead his team to four IPL Titles and the first cricketer to score four centuries in T20 International cricket boasts 8.8 million followers on Instagram.
Bigger Than: Harry Kane, Aubameyang, David Guetta, Mariah Carey
5. AB de Villiers
AB de Villiers is another cricketer who is often regarded as one of the most gifted batsmen of his generation and the former South Africa captain’s innovative and unorthodox style turned him into something of a cult figure for the sport.
Despite retiring last year, de Villiers still remains the 5th most followed cricketing Instagrammer with a lofty 7.8m followers
Bigger Than: Mike Tyson, Neil Patrick Harris, Steve Aoki
