Virat Kohli surpasses Sachin Tendulkar on Twitter to head list

NEW DELHI: Indian vice-captain Virat Kohli has overtaken Sachin Tendulkar as the most followed sportsperson on Twitter though the iconic cricketer still holds the number two spot a year after his retirement.

Kohli (@imVkohli) heads the list with a total base of 4,870,190 fans, which is higher than Tendulkar's (@sachin_rt) 4,869,849 fans. The retired batting great Tendulkar, until recently, was holding the numero uno position in the social networking site.

"Here's the 4 million follower selfie. Hope you like it :)," Kohli, currently in Australia for the four-match Test series, had written on his twitter handle after crossing the 4 lakh mark in October.

Tendulkar is followed by current national cricket team captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni (@msdhoni) with 3,327,033 followers.

Dhoni is followed by Virender Sehwag (3180081), Yuvraj Singh (2723090), Suresh Raina (2617828).

Such is the dominance of cricket that nine of the top 10 in the list of most followed sportspersons are cricketers. Tennis ace Sania Mirza is the sole exception at seven on the list.

Sania is followed by three more cricketers - Zaheer Khan (1732655), Gautam Gambhir (1643423) and Rohit Sharma (1586841).