I was involved in trying to get a release that was available to all of these markets and it was a nightmare as you said. Each market has its own issues as you said in terms of pricing and the complex commercial model that would be in place for this.
There is a governing body (the ICC for the major tournaments world cups etc) where releases could be done for current players featuring in those tournaments, but trying to get all countries on board individually would be near impossible......even the IPL had to have individual agreements with teams and the league itself.
Digital cards are a chance in India as there are over 600 million smart phone users and in total 1.2 billion mobile phone users. Having digital products dirt cheap could work there based on volume, however physical cards would have to be cheap enough for collectors to buy in but also priced so that money can also be made.
I think you will see companies like Topps/Fanatics continue to focus on legends who can sign without branding and then countries will have their own specific releases based on their home licencing agreements.