BCCI becomes only the second cricket body with 6 million followers

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) on Friday hit six million followers on Twitter thus becoming the second cricketing body to reach the landmark, after the head of the governing bodies International Cricket Council (ICC) itself. The ICC has 6.88m followers. Interestingly, Bangladesh Cricket Board has beaten the likes of Pakistan, England, Australia, etc to the second spot with 1.75m followers.

Apart from the main BCCI Twitter handle that is Indian Cricket Team centric, rather, the go-to handle for the men’s team, the BCCI has two other official accounts- for the women’s team and domestic cricket with 96k and 218k followers respectively.

The BCCI celebrated the feat with a simple tweet, saying “Our family is now 6 million strong! Thank you for the love and support.”

Our family is now 6 million strong! Thank you for the love and support. pic.twitter.com/4C7jc9rFcO

— BCCI (@BCCI) November 17, 2017

Here is the list of top ten most followed teams as on November 17, 2017

1. India – 6m

2. Bangladesh – 1.75m

3. Pakistan – 1.1m

4. South Africa – 899k

5. Sri Lanka – 589k

6. England – 428k

7. New Zealand – 363k

8. West Indies – 243k

9. Zimbabwe – 193k

10. Australia – 171k

11. Afghanistan – 166k

However, it is important to note that for Australia, Cricket Australia’s Twitter handle was not taken into consideration into the list. Instead, @CAComms, the official communication handle from Cricket Australia was considered. @CricketAus, their official digital content team boasts of 847k followers. But, come to think of it all these numbers (even the BCCI’s) seem dull in comparison to the following that individual players like Sachin Tendulkar (21.2m) and Virat Kohli (20.3m) have. Then again, in global sports, we have the likes of football superstar Cristiano Ronaldo, who has 63.9m and basketball legend Lebron James (39.6m), who are virtual untouchables.

The BCCI is understandably the most followed since cricket is the most popular sport in India and blessed with a population of 1.3 billion, Indians flock all the social media platforms with their wide presence. It will not be a surprise if the BCCI’s Twitter account soon overtakes the following of the ICC.