Virat Kohli might be out of cricketing action due to the lockdown enforced to mitigate the COVID-19 threat, but on the commercial front team India captain continues to be among the highest scoring global sports icons.
The Team India skipper has netted ₹ 3.6 crore through sponsored Instagram posts to be among the top 10 highest earning athletes in the world via posting commercial content on the video-sharing platform during lockdown. He remains sole Indian athlete and cricketer in the list headed by Portuguese football icon Cristiano Ronaldo.
Kohli has shared three sponsored post at ₹ 1.20 crore per content ever since the lockdown was clamped in the last month of March to contain the spread of novel coronavirus.
According to a report compiled by Attain, Ronaldo tops the table among athletes with total earnings of ₹ 17.2 crore. Fellow footballers Lionel Messi and Neymar Jr come next for grossing ₹ 11.5 cr and ₹ 10.5 cr respectively, while confined to their homes.
Another footballer, former England great David Beckham is in the fifth position with ₹ 3.9 cr earnings, behind basketball great Shaquille O’Neal (₹ 5.6 crore).
The others in the list behind Kohli come footballer Zlatan Ibrahimovic (₹ 1.8 cr), ex-NBA star Dwayne Wade (₹1.4 cr), Brazillian footballer Dani Alves (₹1.3 cr) and boxer Anthony Joshua (₹ 1.2 cr).