Only 4 women in top-30 most followed on social media - It’s a man’s world!

Before social media and social networking became the latest craze, the fans were almost completely out of touch with their favorite athletes with the exception of the rumors and truths the general population heard via the latest news report. Social media allows fans to know where their favorite sports stars are, what they are doing, what they are thinking, and just about anything else the population could possibly want to know. Facebook and Twitter make these stars completely interactive with their fans via the social media world. Social media today establishes the popularity and love for athletes more firmly.

India is one of the biggest digitally reckoned forces and sportspersons are worshipped in the nation. However, the mammoth's share of the popularity is enjoyed by only cricketers. Going by numbers, the top-30 most followed sportspersons in India on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram are mostly our male cricketers, where only four women cricketers make it in the cut.

Sania Mirza (Image: The Secular_News)

Twitter - Saina and Saina in top-10

Twitter data available from socialbakers.com

While Virat Kohli leads the race of Twitter followers with 39.8 million, Sachin Tendulkar stands at the second position with 34.8 million followers and Virender Sehwag at third with 21.4 million. The only three women in the list are Sania Mirza, with 9.2 million subscribers at 9th position, followed by Olympics medallist shuttler Saina Nehwal with 8.5 million at the 10th position, P.V. Sindhu occupies the 28th position in the list with 2.9 million followers.

Image: Smriti Mandhana/Twitter

Facebook - Only Sania in top-10

Facebook data available from socialbakers.com

The stats are slightly different on Facebook, where Kohli and Sachin lead the way in first and second positions, with 37 million and 28 million followers, respectively. The third position on Facebook is earned by India's former captain M.S. Dhoni who has a follower base of 20 million. The only non-cricketer to feature in the top-10 list on Facebook is Sania Mirza, who sits in the seventh position with 12 million followers ahead of Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan, and Bhuvneshwar Kumar. Saina Nehwal is in the 11th position with 8.1 million followers and Mary Kom sits in the 20th position with 3.3 million followers.

Also read: Five Indian players who might retire in 2021

Instagram - Mithali Raj and Smriti Mandhana features in top-30

On Instagram, (calculated manually by The Bridge team) Virat Kohli enjoys one of the highest followerships all over the platform with 88.2 million. It is followed by M.S. Dhoni at a distant 30.6 million and Sachin Tendulkar at 27,6 million. Sania Mirza is the only woman sports star who is in the top-10 at ninth position with 7 million followers. At 22nd position stands Smriti Mandhana with 3.6 million followers. Saina Nehwal has a follower base of 1.5 million at the 28th position and at the 29th position, stands Mithali Raj with 1.4 million followers.

The trend on social media vouches for the fact that in a country dominated by cricketing success and where the cricketers are revered sometimes as demigods, has still a long road to pursue to concentrate in other non-cricketing sports, and women are still way less recognised and popular than their male counterparts. India still has a long way to go is supporting it's women athletes and evry achievement of theirs should be celebrated with pomp and grandeour.

Also read: 1952 was a landmark year for women’s sports in India