Stuart Law, the former Australia batsman, has spoken about the inconsistency in selection policy during his playing days, claiming that it was “one rule for one, and one rule for another” to get picked for the national side.

Law, who has talked before about being given a raw deal by Australia despite his prolific run in domestic cricket, spoke about the time Trevor Hohns, the former chief selector, disregarded his performances in county cricket by saying “England runs don’t count”, but later selected Justin Langer on the basis of his county exploits.

“There were plenty [of discussions with the selectors],” Law said on the YouTube series Cricket Life Stories. “I remember coming over and playing for Essex, my first year I got 1,600 runs in the Championship and truckload in the one-day stuff as well and I went back to Trevor Hohns and I said, ‘Mate, I have scored this many runs. He goes, ‘Nah, Nah! England runs don’t count. You gotta score them back here in Australia’ and a couple of years later Justin Langer went over to county cricket, scored a bucketload of runs and got picked in the Australian team because he had a really good county season. So, it just seemed to be one rule for one, one rule for another. Looking back at it now, that’s what it felt like.”

“All I tried to do…I got angry, I got upset at times, every time I played in a county match, that was my Test match because you’re playing Yorkshire, you’re playing against Darren Gough and some great bowlers, Andy Caddick when you play for Somerset – there’s the England opening attack and scoring runs against them, you’re doing pretty well. Unfortunately for me, every time I did something, the goal post moved and someone else got a leg up.”

Law represented Essex, Lancashire and Derbyshire from 1996 to 2009, scoring a total of 27,080 first-class runs at 50.52 across his career, but could only land a solitary Test appearance in 1995.

"These days, if you don’t get a day’s notice, there’s uproar. I got a 25-minute notice to say I was moving up from No.7 or No.6 to open the batting."https://t.co/G4eg3iSYew

— Wisden (@WisdenCricket) July 16, 2020

“I would have loved it if someone sat me down and said, ‘Honestly, this is what we need to be doing’,” Law said. “‘You need to forget about that, you need to work on this, you need to get better at this’. Then I would have had something to work for. To constantly get told: ‘Ah, nah, score runs you’re doing everything right’, sends a bad message when you don’t get picked. No one else is scoring runs. You are the next cab off the rank and someone leapfrogs you.

“You think, ‘What have I done, who I have I upset?’ You just want to know, but no one’s given me the answer. Maybe, before I hit the grave, they might have the courage to pick up the phone and let me know what actually went on. Till then, I’ll be very happy with what I did in cricket. To finish a career averaging over 50 in 380 odd games is a pretty good effort.”