In the recent hysteria whipped up over the World Cup series, players are expected to stoically bear their iconic status that weighs down on them like a ball and chain. But every now and then there comes a moment when even these demi-gods are revealed for what they are: young, vulnerable and often very alone. As Sachin Tend-ulkar was when he came to know of his father Ramesh Tendulkar's death on Wednesday.

Within hours of the news hitting the television stations and newspaperoffices, hundreds had spontaneously gathered outside the Tendulkar residence in Mumbai. Perhaps they were driven there by curiosity -- but it was also an attempt to reach out to the man who has become their Hero No 1 through his cricketing genius. He is, after all, one of them -- the boy next door who went to the neighbourhood school and honed his extraordinary talent with the bat on the local maidan.

It's quite another thing that today he provokes superlatives from hacks in Mumbai and Manchester. If someone here bestows upon him the title they once gave to Sunil Gavaskar -- Little Master -- someone else in London hails him for being a David Beckham (without the petulance) and a Tony Blair (with humility). He has become one of the biggest crowd pullers of this World Cup season, the man on whom this country's hopes of winning this World Cup rests, the man whom the captain of every rival team plots to get out, the man whom Sir Clyde Walcott says he will not mind travelling half way around the world to watchin action. Stirring words that occasionally betray traces of hyperbole, but Sachin Tendulkar has come to represent a triumph of the spirit that has helped lift the lives of the millions out there from the mundane to the magical.

It is for this reason alone that the show must go on, despite Sachin Tendulkar's absence from the field. It is totally misplaced, indeed suicidal, all the pessimism and doubts being expressed over India's chances now that Tendulkar won't be there in the immediate present to bat for the country. Pessimism doesn't get the runs and wickets, optimism and a never-say-die attitude does. Ask Tendulkar. He will want the boys to carry on no matter. In fact, in times of grief, cricketers have pulled off awesome totals. Mohammed Az-haruddin's century-making debut in 1984 happened around the time that he lost his grandfather to whom he was known to be very close.

If there is one way Indian cricketers can demonstrate to their absent teammate their concern and sympathy at his loss, it is bygiving of their best and keeping the game going.