Smriti Mandhana and Temba Bavuma are the lone cricketers on TIME magazine’s “The 100 Most Influential People in Sports 2026”. Both appear in the “Titans” section, sharing company with LeBron James, Lionel Messi, Rory McIlroy, Victor Wembanyama and others.
Charlie Campbell, editor-at-large at TIME, profiles Mandhana in typically brisk fashion: “The records keep tumbling in for Smriti Mandhana. The Mumbai-born left-handed opening batter was the first Indian woman to score a double century in a domestic one-day game, the first to score a century in all three international formats, and is a joint holder of the most international women’s cricket centuries with 17. Mandhana is also the first woman to score more than 1,000 one-day international runs in a calendar year.”
Campbell’s piece notes her growing list of collective milestones as well: “But Mandhana is proudest of the team honours she is also accumulating. She captained the Royal Challengers Bangalore [Bengaluru] to the 2024 and 2026 Women’s Premier League titles and was vice captain for India’s triumph at last year’s ICC Women’s World Cup, scoring the second-most runs in the tournament.”
The numbers back that up. Since the start of 2024, Mandhana has 3,847 international runs across formats, more than any woman in the same span. Campbell points out the scale of that achievement, adding, “In 2024, Mandhana set the record for most international runs across formats by a woman and then beat her own record last year – a feat that contributed to her being crowned BBC Indian Sportswoman of 2025.”
She remains busy. At the ongoing T20 World Cup in England, the left-hander opened with a brisk 68 from 44 balls against Pakistan, setting India on course for a comfortable six-wicket win. Team-mates talk up her clearer decision-making; analysts highlight her improved strike-rotation. Either way, her influence is showing on the scoreboard.
For Bavuma, the recognition follows a watershed 18 months as South Africa’s Test captain. Campbell writes, “Temba Bavuma has always carried more than the weight of his shirt. As one of just a handful of Black South African cricketers, his successes were lauded as a turning point for the sport. But any setbacks were never merely his own.”
Campbell traces Bavuma’s route to the captaincy: “Fortunately, Bavuma has enjoyed many more successes than setbacks. In 2016, he became the first Black South African to hit a century (scoring 100 or more runs in an inning), and five years later he was his nation’s first Black captain.”
The turnaround moment came last year. “Last year, Bavuma led South Africa to a historic Test series win in India as well as victory in the World Test Championship (WTC), besting a heavily favored Australia in the final and emerging from the tournament undefeated. It was South Africa’s first international title since 1998 and owed much to Bavuma’s heroic 66 runs in the final despite his being hobbled by a hamstring strain,” Campbell adds.
Reflecting on that final, Bavuma told reporters: “It was that moment there to be recognised as more than just a Black African cricketer… And I hope that it continues to inspire our country.”
The TIME nod is unlikely to change either player’s immediate itinerary—Mandhana still has group matches to negotiate, Bavuma heads to a short Test camp next month—but it does underline how both batter and skipper have crossed the line from domestic acclaim to global resonance. Neither has spoken publicly about the magazine listing yet; chances are they will downplay it. But, as one South African board official noted last week, “It’s a reminder that cricket stories can still travel beyond our own circles.”
