Dhoni: The Jowl in the Crown

As MS Dhoni brought up his maiden Test double hundred on Sunday the top Twitter trending topic in the United Kingdom was #Ndubzmemories. If you're unfamiliar with N-Dubz there's really no reason to change that state of affairs, but just note that the pop trio's lead singer is now known for - among other things - appearing as a judge on X Factor, the show to which MS Dhoni would most likely be matched if English fans were ever asked to compare ITV light entertainment programmes to Indian cricketers. 

Dhoni is seen in England as rich, glitzy but lacking in depth, his achievements often dismissed as a triumph of the glossy and brash in meaningless formats. Two IPLs and one Champions League trophy don't really register in the minds of many, mere trivial baubles with as much gravitas as Simon Cowell's implausibly high trousers. The triumph of captaining India to a World Cup is often breezily diminished because of the home location, a criteria for mitigation certainly not equally applied during his captaincy failures on English soil in the 2011 Test series. 

Dhoni two-thirds of the way to really trolling Jadeja. #IndvAus
— Pavilion Opinions (@pavilionopinion) February 24, 2013

Dhoni's relationship with N Srinivasan, the BCCI President, his Chennai Super Kings boss and head of the megalith construction company Indian Cements, is rarely noted in any great detail in the English press. His recent appointment as Vice-President of said firm would perhaps, however, be taken as further evidence of his establishment connivance, a cosying up to the head honcho to protect his position through politics rather than performance. It's certainly a rather unusual move - and there's little chance Alastair Cook will ever be made regional manager of Boston Tea Party, ECB chief Giles Clarke's chain of West Country coffee shops - but no one complained about patronage in 15th Century Italy, and what is cricket if not an extension of the Renaissance? Leonardo da Vinci's not the only man famous for his helicopter, after all. 

In the last two years, Dhoni has played 77 international matches in all formats and kept wicket and captained in each one. In the last two years, India have at times also been an utter shower. Their generally tranquil skipper has to take some stick for that - as Mike Brearley notes, "calmness can turn into or become a sort of detachment" - but today he made Duncan Fletcher's ever-swelling jowls wobble with delight as the put upon India coach applauded his knock, the highest ever for an Indian number six. So MS Dhoni is not perfect, but he moves Duncan Fletcher to display visceral pleasure. You can't say that about many players. Or, one suspects, N-Dubz.