Cricket South Africa offered its initial reaction via Twitter.
"RIP Tata Mandela. It is because of you that a represented Proteas team can express their talent across the globe," it read.
IOC President Thomas Bach hailed Mandela's role in using sport for the greater cause and called him a "true statesman".
"A remarkable man who understood that sport could build bridges, break down walls, and reveal our common humanity," Bach said in a message posted on the IOC's official Twitter handle.
World soccer body Fifa ordered flags to be flown at half mast and a minute's silence to be held before the next round of international matches.
Mandela's last major appearance on the global stage came at soccer's 2010 World Cup finals, the first to be hosted on African soil, when he attended the final in Soweto to a thunderous ovation from the 90,000 strong crowd.
Fifa president Sepp Blatter, in Brazil for Friday's draw for the 2014 World Cup, paid tribute in a statement.
"It is in deep mourning that I pay my respects to an extraordinary person, probably one of the greatest humanists of our time and a dear friend of mine: Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela," said the Swiss.
"When he was honoured and cheered by the crowd at Johannesburg's Soccer City stadium on 11 July 2010, it was as a man of the people, a man of their hearts, and it was one of the most moving moments I have ever experienced."
Former England soccer captain David Beckham, who met Mandela when the team played a friendly in South Africa in 2003, said: "We have lost a true gentleman and a courageous human being."
World number one golfer Tiger Woods also paid tribute to Mandela and recalled meeting the former South African president in 1998.
"He invited us to his home, and it was one of the most inspiring times I've ever had in my life," the American said.
