The county are expected to hold talks with the former India captain this weekend, as India play a three-day warm-up match at the Rose Bowl prior to next week's first Test.

And BBC Sport Online understands that the batsman made the first approach to the county.

"Tendulkar is the game's best batsman, so we are interested," director of cricket Tim Tremlett admitted to the Mail on Sunday.

"You have to go for the best if you want to compete with the likes of Surrey and Yorkshire and win the Championship. That is the level of our ambition."

Hampshire recently admitted they would be unable to bring Australian leg-spinner Shane Warne back next season because of international commitments.

And Tremlett said the same could be true for Tendulkar, who played a season of county cricket with in 1992, averaging 45 as Yorkshire's first ever overseas player.

But India's only current fixture, according to the International Cricket Council programme, during the next English summer is a tour of Pakistan in April.

And, with the two sides not having faced each other for two years because of political tension, that trip must be in doubt.

High finance

Tendulkar, 29, is generally recognised as the finest batsman of his generation, with 8004 Test runs and 29 centuries, equalling Sir Donald Bradman.

Tremlett said that external sponsorship would be needed to finance the signing, but Hampshire are believed to have shelled out a six-figure sum to secure Warne's services in 2000.

Such a move could appeal to Tendulkar, whose wife's family lives in Wiltshire.

But his first experience of Hampshire's new ground was not an enjoyable one as he was dismissed for three, after facing just 20 balls, on Saturday.