I was trying to work it out with my sister last night. We felt compelled as the current lot don't really appeal to us!

John Sargeant was probably one of the most famous prior to his appearance on the show.

Nah... check out our discussions from last week on this thread here!

It is Martina Hingis!

*runs away fast before fancynancy appears LOL!*

Gotcha!!

Beyonce.

Emma Bunton as she's worldwide famous, probably.

Martina Hingis, most global fame and was the top of her profession for a while.

flavia world champion

I think Martina, Joe, Jodie, Emma and Stephanie are top 4. They have acheived global fame wheras others who we see as famous in this coutnry (John Sargeant) are only famous in this country.

Colin Jackson, via a tenuous route...

Jackson was the world record holder for the 110 metre hurdles from 1993 until it was broken by a Chinese guy who also won the Olympics in 2004. This Chinese guy was hugely famous in China, as the only Chinese person to ever win an Olympic athletics gold medal. His attempts to break Jackson's world record were closely followed in China, and therefore there were probably several hundred million people who knew of Jackson, simply because he held the record their man was trying to beat.

Darren Gough may be in with a shout as well. Cricket is huge in India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, and there are several hundred million cricket fans in these countries who have doubtless heard of Dazza.

Fame is relative. A person who is famous to one poster will seem insignificant to another.

Only 11 minutes later too - not bad!

It is still Martina Hingis though LOL!

On thinking about it, it is definitely Darren Gough, because of the hundreds of millions of cricket fans in India, and his high profile in the sport.

Tennis doesn't really feature in India and China, so Hingis misses out on this fame-base.

Basically, if you're well-known in India and / or China, then you're more famous than anyone who is only known in the "developed" world.

No, Bud - it ain't.

It's Peter Schmeichel.

It could indeed be Schmeichel. It depends whether Man U are as big in China as cricket is in India.

I'm certainly not going to count either set of fans individually.

Man Utd are huge all over Asia - including India. Football's the world's biggest sport - by a mile.

I'll do Shanghai if you do Delhi - how's that for a deal?

Cool - I always prefer a curry to a Chinese takeaway!

So do I, actually. I think I missed a trick there!

I can swap. I don't dislike the odd set meal for two all for myself.

It's got to be Bruce! Forsythe that is. 60 years in the business

Either that or I could post you some prawn balls. I'll need to know which street corner in Delhi you're standing on though - y'know, delivery address and all that.

This is changing rapidly... the Chinese have pumped millions and millions into tennis over the past 5-10 years.

Take a look at the ATP and WTA calendars, there are events in china now - BIG events, mandatory events. They are even trying to either steal the Australian Open or get themselves a tournament with Grand Slam status (i.e. level with Wimbledon). They're building and rebuilding tennis complexes all over the place.

Course, Martina has retired and so won't reap lots of fame from this. She was huge in Japan though.

Plus Sania Mirza has to have a big team of bodyguards whenever she is in India, she is a big deal.

Agree that generalisations are dangerous, but cricket is in a different league profile-wise to other sports in India.

Either way, though, SCD's most famous participant will be someone who has a high profile in India and / or China.

Not Alesha Dixon that's for sure.