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Only 1 cricketer (#97 Virat Kohli) in ESPN’s 100 greatest athletes since 2000

Bhaijaan

Bhaijaan

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www.espn.in

ESPN's top 100 professional athletes of the 21st century: Unveiling 1-25

Who tops our list of the top athletes since 2000? We're unveiling the top 25, including our voters' pick for the No. 1 spot.
www.espn.in www.espn.in

Lost is dominated by American sports as expected. I don’t have a problem with Kohl being ranked #97 but whereas for sports like Basketball, American football they picked all the stars, certain other sports only had only their literally GOAT level athletes selected.

Nevertheless what’s your opinion on this list.
 
Only fast bowlers can be considered as athletes. Otherwise cricketers are not athletes. You might as well call chess players athletes too.
 
Bhaijaan said:
www.espn.in

ESPN's top 100 professional athletes of the 21st century: Unveiling 1-25

Who tops our list of the top athletes since 2000? We're unveiling the top 25, including our voters' pick for the No. 1 spot.
www.espn.in www.espn.in

Lost is dominated by American sports as expected. I don’t have a problem with Kohl being ranked #97 but whereas for sports like Basketball, American football they picked all the stars, certain other sports only had only their literally GOAT level athletes selected.

Nevertheless what’s your opinion on this list.
Click to expand...
Well, its catering American market ain't it? and American sports star even mediocre ones in NBA, NFL can manage Kohli level money. .

Most global lists like that are usually American sports + Messi/Ronaldo and other footballers+ Tennis Stars (males) + Serena and other eye candy female Tennis stars + Formula 1+ Boxing and finally 1 or 2 exotic names like Kohli to give the impression of a global list.
 
Not surprising.

Not many care about cricket other than desi people. Even among desis, I doubt if even 70% care about it.

Soccer/Football is the undisputed #1 sport and most "greatest" athletes should be from there.
 
sweep_shot said:
Not surprising.

Not many care about cricket other than desi people. Even among desis, I doubt if even 70% care about it.

Soccer/Football is the undisputed #1 sport and most "greatest" athletes should be from there.
Click to expand...
Cricket is followed by around 2.5 billion people. How many sports apart from Soccer have more than that?
 
CricketCartoons said:
Cricket is followed by around 2.5 billion people. How many sports apart from Soccer have more than that?
Click to expand...

Where are you getting that statistics from? Do you think all desis follow cricket? Even among Indians, I think many don't follow it.

If I remember correctly, the guy who saved Pant didn't know who he was as he didn't follow cricket. I read something like that.

Soccer is a global sport. 200+ countries play it.
 
sweep_shot said:
Where are you getting that statistics from? Do you think all desis follow cricket? Even among Indians, I think many don't follow it.

If I remember correctly, the guy who saved Pant didn't know who he was as he didn't follow cricket. I read something like that.

Soccer is a global sport. 200+ countries play it.
Click to expand...
I didn't dispute the popularity of Soccer. I am asking which sports apart from Soccer are followed by more than 2.5 billion people.
 
CricketCartoons said:
I didn't dispute the popularity of Soccer. I am asking which sports apart from Soccer are followed by more than 2.5 billion people.
Click to expand...

I see.

Cricket is #2 I guess.

But, football is so far ahead of other sports that this sport alone may give you 80-90 "greatest" athletes.
 
Just checked the list in the OP so many no name Baseball,American Football and Ice Hockey players in the list even Women basketball players lol.

It's more like America"s Top Athletes list.
 
No shock here. Cricket is not that popular among those who are sitting in Europe and make these lists.
 
It's a reality, do people in Ecuador and Ivory Coast know Virat Kohli highly doubtful but masses in Afghanistan and Cambodia know Lionel Messi
 
Kianig89 said:
It's a reality, do people in Ecuador and Ivory Coast know Virat Kohli highly doubtful but masses in Afghanistan and Cambodia know Lionel Messi
Click to expand...
Have you seen the list?
How many of the NBA, NFL players are known even to Americans lets alone rest of the world?
No one is comparing Kohli to Messi or Ronaldo here. Thats a strawman.
 
Kianig89 said:
It's a reality, do people in Ecuador and Ivory Coast know Virat Kohli highly doubtful but masses in Afghanistan and Cambodia know Lionel Messi
Click to expand...

Bro have a look at the list.

People in Cambodia and Ecuador are more likely to know Virat Kohli rather than a lot of the no name American sports athletes in that list.
 
Bhaijaan said:
Bro have a look at the list.

People in Cambodia and Ecuador are more likely to know Virat Kohli rather than a lot of the no name American sports athletes in that list.
Click to expand...
The probability of people in AFGHANISTAN being familiar with Messi is more than that of Kohli in Ecuador, that was the message
 
KingKhanWC said:
It’s for accomplishments. Espn is an American company . The same list in the uk wouldn’t feature more than 3/4 American sports stars .
Click to expand...

Yankees live on another planet when it comes to sport and pretty much everything else, e.g. faith, identity etc
 
Cricket is not currently seen as a serious sport outside of the test playing countries, but to take an optimistic view, the T20 format could appeal to Americans down the road. There's a large Indian population there so you would get crowds, and if big nations like the USA got involved it would lessen the stranglehold of the BCCI, which in turn would return the game to a global status rather than the plaything of the Indian govt.
 
Americans live in their own little bubble where they think that baseball is the biggest sport in the world, hockey should be played on ice and baseball isn't the dumbest and most boring way to use a bat and a ball in a pro-sport.
 
Last edited by a moderator:
It's the weirdest list. The top 19 is okay I guess but 20 is some guy called Aaron Donald who even I who lived in the States for a few years and watched a couple of superbowls am only vaguely aware of. Number 21 is then some lady called Diana Taurasi who I bet most Americans wouldn't be aware of. Apparently she's more of an athlete than Zinedine Zidane. It only gets worse from there. Must've been made by the author in some drug-induced delirium.
 
shaz619 said:
Yankees live on another planet when it comes to sport and pretty much everything else, e.
Click to expand...


I keep hearing yanks say Tom Brady is the goat athlete lol . I haven’t seen him for more than 20 seconds but it’s American football. I guess if they manly follow only American sports it makes them feel superior as it’s yanks always winning
 
KingKhanWC said:
I keep hearing yanks say Tom Brady is the goat athlete lol . I haven’t seen him for more than 20 seconds but it’s American football. I guess if they manly follow only American sports it makes them feel superior as it’s yanks always winning
Click to expand...

In global team sports they are rubbish so need to invent random activities to pump their chests, you’d think with their resource they’d want to dominate other sports but they don’t have the chops, just cowards / home track bully’s in every way whether it’s sports or war
 
Kianig89 said:
The probability of people in AFGHANISTAN being familiar with Messi is more than that of Kohli in Ecuador, that was the message
Click to expand...

Messi is a different beast. He plays football. Fact is the at Kohli is more globally renowned than 80% athletes in that list. You just compared the #97 ranked guy to the #1 ranked guy of the #1 global sport by far. Where is your logic
 
Americans have achieved sporting independence. They have created trillions dollars worth domestic leagues in Baseball, American Football, NBA. Self sustaining.Sag whatever but every nation desires this level of independence from global organisations like FIFA, ICC etc.
 
RedwoodOriginal said:
Americans live in their own little bubble where they think that baseball is the biggest sport in the world, hockey should be played on ice and baseball isn't the dumbest and most boring way to use a bat and a ball in a pro-sport.
Click to expand...

They used to dominate tennis as well back in the days before it became a major sport in Europe. Don't think I have seen many American superstars in tennis since McEnroe other than Pete Sampras and Serena.
 
Bhaijaan said:
Messi is a different beast. He plays football. Fact is the at Kohli is more globally renowned than 80% athletes in that list. You just compared the #97 ranked guy to the #1 ranked guy of the #1 global sport by far. Where is your logic
Click to expand...
I compared football' s no.1 with cricket no.1 but the glass is half empty in your case
 
shaz619 said:
Why have they not included Roman Reigns or Shawn Michaels on this list @RedwoodOriginal @BunnyRabbit
Click to expand...
Seems like they hired a guy (who didn't follow any sport) to make this list and he did it overnight trying to google as many names he could.

It's as stupid of a list as Rolling Stone's Greatest Artists of All Time or Greatest Guitarists of All Time or 500 Greatest Albums of All time.
 
BunnyRabbit said:
Seems like they hired a guy (who didn't follow any sport) to make this list and he did it overnight trying to google as many names he could.

It's as stupid of a list as Rolling Stone's Greatest Artists of All Time or Greatest Guitarists of All Time or 500 Greatest Albums of All time.
Click to expand...
I think the guy's day job is write about basketball so it's mostly basketball players. The rest - you're probably right are some Google searches.

I suppose ESPN's achieved it's aim which to get a few people to talk about and visit it's site to see a few ads. The guy probably spent a half an hour coming up with this or maybe just used ChatGPT and he's earning a few thousand dollars for ESPN. In return, we sports fans have something new to argue about. Everybody wins.
 
RedwoodOriginal said:
Americans live in their own little bubble where they think that baseball is the biggest sport in the world, hockey should be played on ice and baseball isn't the dumbest and most boring way to use a bat and a ball in a pro-sport.
Click to expand...
@Mods I was mocking football when I said eggball. If you're going to edit comments the least you can do is be accurate. Btw just go ahead and delete my comment next time if you are going to cut it up like this where it makes zero sense reading back. And all because I called American football eggball? You guys are going a little bit overboard with the censorship. Every small thing does not need to be moderated/edited. Nothing offensive was said.
 
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