zain
Believe
I'd say about 100 footballers, a dozen basketball players, and a handful of golfers are more known globally than any cricket player.
Again..
India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, 60% of the Middle East (due to the expatriate population being South Asian), Australia, New Zealand, England, South Africa, Sri Lanka etc..
That's a large chunk of the World's population..
The other MAIN reason I feel why Tendulkar is popular is also down to China's sports interest of the 1.3 billion there being vastly divided amongst a number of sports..
Whereas in India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh...in terms of sport.
Cricket really is the BE ALL AND END ALL and is Larger than life!..you can safely say that 99% of the sane adult population in those countries know very well who Sachin Tendulkar..
South America not a soul would obviously know Tendulkar so I agree about that..
However, based truly in terms of NUMBERS and NUMBERS ALONE and not on popularity just amongst the developed countries, Tendulkar is well up there!
Obviously many non-South Asian based North Americans wouldn't have a clue who he is due to the unfortunate lack of cricket coverage in the area...but that doesn't mean he's not a huge global icon. (75% of Americans can't even find UK on a world map!)
Nowhere near Beckham of course....but he's definitely big..
In terms of global image and marketing, you have to remember, the part of the world's population that are exposed to Michael jordan/David Beckham billboards/magazines in huge cities is very small compared to the amount of people living in suburbs, small towns who really lack much foreign media coverage!
This demographic would obviously not know who Michael Jordan is, but this demographic in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka would very very well know who Sachin Tendulkar is!