4 Indians in ESPN’s top 100 most Famous Athletes list

ESPN has come out with the top 100 famous athletes list once again, and as far as cricketers go, Indians continue to dominate, as no cricketer from any other country is included in the list. 4 Indians make it to the top 100 list, and all of them are cricketers.

Indian cricket captain, Virat Kohli,  is ranked 13th on the list, having dropped 5 spots from his last year’s position of number 8. He is closely followed by the former Indian Skipper, Mahendra Singh Dhoni, who ranks 15th on the list. He too has dropped one place from last year’s standings.

The other two Indian cricketers to feature in the list are Yuvraj Singh and Suresh Raina, ranked 90 and 95 respectively.

India is the only subcontinent country to feature in the list.

ESPN’s director of analytics, Ben Almar, revealed that endorsements are combined with social media following and internet search popularity to funnel out the rankings.

Virat Kohli, the number one Indian on the list, earns about $17.4 million through endorsements every year. He has 60 million followers from Facebook, Twitter and Instagram combined.

MS Dhoni earns $16 million from endorsements and has 30 million followers across these three social mediums. Yuvraj, third on the list earns $1.3 million from endorsements and has 20 million followers. Raina, the last Indian on the list earns about $339 thousand and has over 10 million followers. Sania Mirza missed out on a spot this year.

Cristiano Ronaldo tops the list, followed by LeBron James and Lionel Messi!

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Utkarsh Bhatla