At times, the manner in which a batsman makes runs provides evidence of his ability. But the reverse is also true: at times, the way a batsman scores is indicative of reasons why he should not be picked.

Phillip Hughes of New South Wales has again been awarded a contract by Cricket Australia. On the tour of India in February and March, Hughes failed repeatedly. He showed an inability to tackle spin – and that was about all that was doled out by the Indian team.

Hughes’ scores in the series were 6, 0, 19, 0, 2, 69, 45 and 6 as Australia was hammered 4-0 in the four-Test series. During the knock of 69, he was like a cat on hot bricks. He survived 166 balls through sheer luck, and zero ability. He was as jumpy as he had been during his previous five innings.

If there was any indication that he needed to be replaced, this innings was it. Usman Khawaja, who is known to be a decent player of spin, should have got a chance in the next Test.

But Khawaja had blown his chances of playing in the third Test by not completing an assignment handed down by the coach. He, and three others, were not considered for that Test.

He was considered for the fourth Test. Or maybe he was not. That he was not picked indicates that Australia’s selectors go by only one criterion – scoring runs. Hughes happens to come from NSW, the state that has the most influence in Australian cricket.

So he has got another chance and a fat contract. Khawaja is again out in the cold. And Australia’s selectors have made it plain that politics is more important in the game than ability.

Hughes will next be seen in action during the Ashes in England. Khawaja is unlikely to be in the touring party given that the selectors are looking to somehow win back the urn. It doesn’t matter if they have to pick batsmen who are on the verge of retirement – there are hints that Chris Rogers and Adam Voges may be picked as they have made plenty of runs in English county cricket.

There is already bad news for Hughes – the lanky Chris Tremlett, who troubled him greatly during the Ashes series played in Australia in 2010-11, is fit again and just returning to the game. If Tremlett gets back in the England side, Hughes will no doubt be haunted by memories of how he failed repeatedly against the big man.

The selectors are looking to save their necks. Not to build a team for the future. And to play their politics right – else when they are shown the door, the next opening in the cricket industry may be a long time coming.

Back in 1967, the then Indian finance minister Morarji Desai had the brilliant idea of raising taxes well beyond their existing level; the maximum marginal tax rate was raised as high as 97.75 percent.

Desai, who was better known for drinking his own urine, reasoned that people would pay up and that India’s budgetary problems would be more manageable.

Instead, the reverse happened. India has always had a problem with undeclared wealth, a kind of parallel economy which is called black money. The amount of black money increased by leaps and bounds after Desai’s ridiculous laws were promulgated.

Seven years later, in 1974, the new finance minister Y.B. Chavan brought down rates by some 20 percentage points, but by then the damage had been done. The amount of black money in India today is estimated to be anything from 30 to 100 times the national budget.

No deal of any size in India can be done without paying part of the price under the table. I had great difficulty in 2004 in selling a flat I owned, simply because I wanted all the money paid above the table. And that flat was being sold well below the market rate so that I could complete the deal soon and return home. But without a black money component, nobody wants to do a deal.

Given this background, it is not surprising that the Indian Premier League, a cricket competition that is played every year and which has been in existence since 2008, pays its players – who come from every cricket-playing country – huge sums for a few weeks of Twenty20 cricket. The government pretends to be surprised about this and often vows to investigate the issue but is really not bothered; instead it is happy that black money is being converted to legal tender.

Industrialists own teams and pump their black money into paying the players. They gain a measure of publicity, both for themselves and their companies. And that is something they love. After all, black money is not of much use unless can utilise it.

In India, corruption is a way of life. You have to pay to get anything and everything done, even to get a proper bill for your monthly consumption of electricity. The symbol of one of India’s main political parties, the Congress (I) is the hand; it would be better to make it an outstretched hand because that is what one encounters in India right from the moment one gets off the plane.

Hence for anyone to say that black money has no role in the IPL is akin to saying that people do no need to breathe in order to live.

Last month, Australia completed a miserable cricket tour of India during which it lost all four Tests, the first time this has happened since 1970.

On that occasion, a strong Australian team went to South Africa and was creamed 4-0; the South Africans were captained by Ali Bacher and included legends of the game like Graeme Pollock, Mike Proctor, Peter Pollock, Barry Richards and Eddie Barlow.

But in India, a weak Australian team came up against opponents who were not that formidable. The one thing that was clearly observable was the fact that the shorter forms of the game have had a bad effect on the Australians’ ability to stay at the crease and grind out the runs.

The contributor to this lack of stickability is Twenty20 cricket. In the one-day game one has plenty of time to build an innings; the highest individual score in this form is 219, by the mercurial Indian, Virender Sehwag, against the West Indies in 2011. Sachin Tendulkar has made a double-century as well, against South Africa in 2010. In Twenty20, one cannot build an innings; one has to start swinging the willow from ball one.

Additionally, Twenty20 games are generally played on placid surfaces to ensure that the batsmen can entertain the crowd. Else, the whole point of the game would be lost. Test cricket is often played on surfaces which try the patience of batsmen and that’s why it has that name – it is a test.

India did not have a top-class bowling attack but the spinners it fielded were enough to bamboozle the Australians who are uncomfortable facing this kind of bowling. Australia’s bowling attack wasn’t all that bad apart from the spin department which was the area that needed to be strong.

For Australia, losing in international cricket is a national shame. The country is crazy about sport, understandably so since it has little else to boast about. The sense of shame will be compounded in mid-year if Australia is unable to win back the Ashes from England. And things will really come to a head if the Australians are beaten again in the reverse Ashes which are to be played during the Australian summer.