Dhoni 16th most remarkable Athletes - SportsPRO

Team India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni and five-time world champion boxer M.C. Mary Kom have been rated as the 16th and 38th most marketable athletes in the world respectively by a British monthly.

SportsPro has ranked athletes from the across the world on the basis of their marketing potential over the next three years and after considering factors like age, home market, charisma, crossover appeal and value for money. Kom, who is the lone Indian female boxer to qualify for the London Olympics, is the only athlete from the country other than Dhoni to feature in the list that has been topped by Brazilian football sensation Neymar.

“I thank SportsPro for considering me among the top 50 marketable athletes in the world, which is such an illustrious list containing the names of so many of the world’s most notable sportspeople,” said Kom, who is currently training in Pune for the London Games.

In a year that saw Mahendra Singh Dhoni captain the Indian national team to victory at the 2011 ICC Cricket World Cup in his own country, hitting the winning runs in the final with a six in a sparkling yet brutal innings of 91 not out, and lead the Chennai Super Kings to the 2010 an d 2011 Indian Premier League (IPL) title, it may surprise people to see his stock fall in this list.

But following the passing of his home World Cup and with no major international cricket tournament for a while to come – certainly none that will provide him with a platform to top his recent heroics – his commercial value may well have peaked. Without question, though, Dhoni’s marketability has reached another new high in India in the aftermath of the tournament.

The list also includes some of the world’s best athletes such as Lionel Messi (3), Usain Bolt (4), Christiano Ronaldo (5), Rory McIlroy (2), Maria Sharapova, Novak Djokovic, Lewis Hamilton and many more.

 Courtesy: The Hindu & Sports Pro

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