Do you want to know who are the world’s most popular cricketers? If yes, check out this list of top 10 most popular cricketers in the world.
Cricket is one of the most popular sports in the world. Moreover, it is considered as a religion in many countries such as India. And this popular game has produced many great and popular cricketers on the International level. Thus, naming the world’s all popular or famous cricketers here is quite difficult. Therefore, we have shortlisted only the top 10 most popular cricketers in the world of all time. These are those International cricketers who were excellent and greatest of their time.
We have collected these popular cricketers from the available list of International cricket council members and then sort out top 10 from them. They are always recognizing as great cricketers of all time in cricket history.
Top 10 Most Popular Cricketers in the World
11. Brett Lee
Brett Lee was a former Australian International Cricketer who was born in Australia on 8 November 1976. He is known to be the fastest right-hand bowler after Pakistani Cricketer Shoaib Akhtar. The speed and unplayable bouncers were the best quality of this fast bowler. No doubt, he will always get remember among the most popular cricketers of all time.
Brett Lee has played 76 test matches, took 310 wickets and scored 1,451 runs. He has also played 221 ODI matches and scored 1,176 runs and took 380 wickets. He has extremely good bowling average in all format of cricket. His bowling Average is 30.81 (Test), 23.36 (ODI) and 28.22 (T20).
10. Lasith Malinga
Lasith Malinga is a famous Sri Lankan cricketer as well as World T20 winning captain in 2014. He is an outstanding fast bowler with a very different technique well-known as sling action. This unique technique makes him unique and popular cricketer in the world.
Lasith Malinga is expert of “swinging yorker”, famous for his talent to take consecutive wickets. He is the only bowler in the world to have two World Cup hat-tricks. He regularly bowls at speeds between 140 to 150 km/h also sometimes slightly faster.
Lasith Malinga has played 30 test matches, took 101 wickets and scored 275 runs. He has also played 191 ODI matches and scored 475 runs and took 291 wickets. His bowling Average is 33.15 (Test), 27.77 (ODI).
9. Muttiah Muralitharan
Muttiah Muralitharan is one of the world’s most popular cricketers from Sri Lanka. He was born on 17 April 1972 in Kandy, Dominion of Ceylon. He is legendary for his off-spin bowling that has earned him several records. Till now, he is holding the top place among the highest wicket-takers in Test matches and also in ODI matches.
Muralitharan has played 133 test matches, took 800 wickets and scored 1,256 runs. He has also played 350 ODI matches and scored 674 runs and took 534 wickets. His bowling Average is 22.72 (Test), 23.08 (ODI).
8. Chris Gayle
Chris Gayle was born on 21 September 1979 in Kingston, Jamaica. He is another famous West Indian cricket batsman listed in the list of top 10 most popular cricketers in the world. He is most famous for his maximum sixes as well as hard hitting.
Gayle has been known to fuelling West Indies 205 runs against Australia in the ICC T20 World Cup semifinal-1 which was the highest run scorer of the tournament. He is one of only four players who has made two triple centuries in test match 317 against South Africa in 2005, and 333 against Sri Lanka in 2010.
Gayle has played 103 test matches, took 73 wickets and scored 7,2runsrun. He has also played 269 ODI matches and scored 9,139 runs and took 163 wickets. His bowling Average is 42.73(Test), 35.20 (ODI) and 24.00 (T20).
7. Brian Lara
Brian Charles Lara is a former Trinidadian international cricket player. He was born on 2 May 1969 in Santa Cruz, Trinidad, and Tobago. He is generally recognized as one of the greatest cricketers of all-time.
Brian Lara holds the record for the top individual score in a test innings after making 400 not out against England at Antigua in 2004. He is the only one man to have reclaimed the Test match record score, having scored 375 against England in 1994, a record that stood until Matthew Hayden’s 380 against Zimbabwe in 2003. This has made him one of the all-time popular cricketers in the world.
Brian Lara has played 131 test matches and scored 11 runs. He has also played 299 ODI matches and scored 10,405 runs and took 5 wickets. His bowling Average is 15.25(ODI).
6. Shoaib Akhtar
Shoaib Akhter is another one of the most popular cricketers from Pakistan. He was best famous as Rawalpindi Express also DON of Cricket. He is holding the top rank in the list of super fastest bowlers in the cricket history. His highest bowling speed is 161.3 km/h which has made him the most popular cricketer in the world. He has the number of fast bowling records with speed of 160 km/h, 159.3 km/h, 159 km/h and 158.4 km/h.
Akhter is the only one bowler in the history of cricket to have been recorded to bowl above 100 mph. He has played 46 test matches, took 178 wickets and scored 544 runs. He has also played 163 ODI matches and scored 394 runs and took 247 wickets. His bowling Average is 25.69(Test), 24.97(ODI) and 22.73(T20).
5. Shaid Afridi
Shahid Afridi is also the most popular cricketer in the world. He is the earlier Test and ODI Pakistani cricketer. He was recognized aa s great all-rounder who has set many records by his bowling and batting.
In 1996 he had completed 100+ on 37 balls which were a record and AB de Villiers has this record for now. He also holds the record of highest sixes and the largest six in ODI. He hit the longest six in the history of ODI against Australia. Besides that, he is the 2nd maximum wicket takers in T20 Cricket.
Afridi has played 27 test matches, took 48 wickets and scored 1,716 runs. He has also played 398 ODI matches and scored 8,064 runs and took 395 wickets. His bowling Average is 35.60(Test), 34.51(ODI) and 23.71(T20).
4. Wasim Akram
Wasim Akram is an earlier Pakistani cricketer who is also the most popular cricketer in the world. He is one of the greatest cricketers of all time, famous as the King of Swing. He has made history through his better bowling style and holds the world record for highest wickets in List a cricket with 881. Besides that, he is also one of the highest wicket-takers in ODI with 502 wickets in ODI cricket.
Wasim was ranked as the greatest bowler in ODI of all time in 2002. He is considered to the Best Captain who took 4 hat-tricks in International cricket.
Wasim has played 104 test matches, took 414 wickets and scored 2,898 runs. He has also played 356 ODI matches and scored 3,717 runs and took 502 wickets. His bowling Average is 23.62(Test) and 23.52(ODI).
3. Mahendra Singh Dhoni
Mahendra Singh Dhoni is an Indian cricketer and one of the most successful captains of the Indian cricket team in all three forms of the game. He is also the captain of Chennai Super Kings in IPL.
Dhoni has led the Indian team at number 1 position in ICC rankings in Test cricket in his time. Under his captaincy, India won the 2007 ICC World T20.
MS Dhoni is only one Indian player who achieves the ICC ODI Player of the Year award in the year 2008 and 2009. He has played 90 test matches and scored 4,876 run. Besides that, he has also played 338 ODI matches and scored 10,415 runs. His Batting Average is 38.10(Test), 50.08(ODI) and 36.90(T20).
And when we talk about his popularity, he is considered among the world’s most popular cricketer of all time.
2. Sachin Tendulkar
Sachin Tendulkar is another one of the most popular Indian cricketer and the world’s greatest cricketer of all time. He took up cricket at the age of 11, made his Test debut on 15 November 1989 against Pakistan in Karachi at the age of 16.
Tendulkar is the only player to have made 100 international centuries. He holds the record for most number of runs in both ODI and Test match. He is leading the top 10 batsmen with the highest ODI centuries. Besides that, he is the only player to scored more than 30,000 runs in international cricket.
Tendulkar has received many awards Arjuna Award, Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna award, Padma Shri and Padma Vibhushan awards. He has played 200 test matches and scored 15,921 runs and took 46 wickets. Besides that, he has played 463 ODI matches and scored 18,426 runs and took 154 wickets. His Bowling average is 54.17(Test), 44.48(ODI).
As per the above numbers, it is clear that Sachin Tendulkar is one of the most successful cricketers in the world. This also makes him one of the most popular cricketers in the world.
1. AB De Villiers
Any Cricket lover will thoroughly agree with us that AB De Villiers is the most popular cricketer in the world of this era. He played for South Africa and former captain of South African ODI team. He is widely considered as the most successful South African cricketers of all time.
ABD is a right-handed batsman, who in a very short period of time has built up many runs in Tests including 21 centuries and 36 fifties. He holds the second-highest individual score by a South African batsman in an innings, with 278. Besides that, he also holds the records for the fastest run 100 (31 balls), 50 (16 balls) and 150 (64 balls) in ODI by any batsmen in ODI history.
ABD has played 114 test matches and scored 8765 runs. He has also played 228 ODI matches and scored 9,577 runs. He has an extremely good batting average in all format of cricket. His batting Average is 50.70 (Test) and 53.50 (ODI).
These top 10 International records of AB de Villiers make him extraordinary batsman of this world.
