Smriti Mandhana named in World's Top 50 Most Marketable Athletes

India's star opener, Smriti Mandhana has been named in the World's 50 Most Marketable Athletes. The list- which forms its' decisions on the basis of marketing potential in the next three years, with stress on value for money, age, home market, charisma, willingness to be marketed and crossover appeal- has been released by SportsPro Media, with their official data partner Hookit. It features just two other cricketers; Indian men's team captain, Virat Kohli and England's wicketkeeper-batter, Jos Butler. Mandhana, who has achieved a marketability score of 33 out of 100, finds herself at number 49, just ahead of Irish MMA star, Conor McGregor.



There has been an astronomical rise in Mandhana's popularity after her performances in India's early stages of the Women's World Cup in 2017. The team went on to finish as the tournament runners-up. Since then, she has gone on to score the fastest Twenty-20 half-century for India, reaching the milestone in just 30 balls against Australia in the 2017-2018 Tri-Nation Series. In the following ODIs with England, Mandhana was adjudged the Player of the Series, finishing as the leading run-scorer. Because of her performances, she was named as the Best Woman International Cricketer by the Board of Control for Cricket in India. She was also featured in Forbes 30 under 30 2018 Asia list.



Mandhana, the vice-captain of India's Twenty-20 team, along with her Twenty-20 skipper, Harmanpreet Kaur were the first Indians to be a part of the Women's Big Bash League in Australia, where Mandhana played for the Brisbane Heat for a year. The two also became the first Indians to feature in the Kia Super League in England in 2018, where Mandhana represented Western Storm. She finished as the leading run-scorer of the competition, scoring a century and two half-centuries on her way to amassing 421 runs, and was named the Player of the Tournament. So popular was she in the tournament, that during a Storm match being live-streamed, the viewership number dropped by over 50% once Mandhana was dismissed.



The 22-year-old has scored 2,402 international runs from 2 tests, 41 ODI and 42 Twenty-20 internationals since her international debut in 2013 and she only seems to be getting better, so it is no surprise that her name is found in this list.