314 million. This is the number of followers that Virat Kholi (India, 1988), professional cricket player and the third athlete with the most followers on social networks in the world, has; more than LeBron James, Tom Brady and Tiger Woods combined. An anecdotal event, but one that demonstrates the social potential of the sport of English origin, since it is the second most popular in the world with 2.5 billion fans. However, Kohli has a more ambitious record to attack, beyond being among the most successful on the internet: the Olympic Games.
The athlete from New Delhi will have the possibility of expanding his coveted record in Los Angeles 2028. And this Monday the International Olympic Committee (IOC) accepted cricket as an Olympic sport, as well as baseball, lacrosse, squash and 'billet'. An event that could allow Kohli to further expand the marks and records that he has broken during his professional career.
Behind him, Kohli holds the fastest One Day International (ODI) - cricket's most important team competition format - in the century, is the fastest batsman to reach 5,000 ODI runs and is the second batsman to have scored 1000. or more ODIs for four calendar years consecutively.
In addition, he has distinctions such as the Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna, the highest sporting honor in India that he received in 2018. An event as notable as the one that took place in the south of the country last Saturday. More than 100,000 people gathered at the Narendra Modi stadium to experience India-Pakistan cricket on the occasion of the World Cup: the Pakistanis played on Indian soil for the first time in a decade.
Kholi, known as 'Chikoo' or 'Cheeku', makes the most of its social popularity. In 2020, he was placed in the second half of Forbes magazine's top 100 as one of the highest-paid athletes, surpassing stars such as Sergio Ramos, Gareth Bale and David De Gea. As if that were not enough, his media cache is greater, being married to Bollywood actress Anushka Sharma.
The Indian celebrity's fortune can increase if we add the sponsorship contracts to his annual Series A contract that guarantees him one million dollars a year. Nothing compared to winning the Olympic Games. The Austrian Karl Stoss, head of the Games Program Commission, assumes that “the best” will participate in the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic event. And Virat Kholi is one of them.
