Australia's cricketers urged to stop sandpapergate spat as Greg Chappell fears sport could ‘eat itself’

Greg Chappell has urged Australia’s past and present cricket stars to end their civil war as the ghosts of sandpapergate continue to haunt the game.

Usman Khawaja sent the cricket world into a spin last week when he claimed the entire Test team that played in Cape Town in 2018 knew of the plot to tamper with the ball.

Cameron Bancroft, who was in charge of using sandpaper to roughen up one side of the ball, copped a nine-month ban in the wake of the cheating scandal, while Steve Smith and David Warner were suspended for a year and stripped of their leadership roles.

The fallout continues to this very day.

Test skipper Pat Cummins delivered an extraordinary 70-minute press conference in Sydney on Friday where he provided an open floor for journalists to ask whatever they wanted in regards to sandpapergate 2018 and ball tampering in general, among other hot topics.

The 33-year-old steadfastly rejected claims he had any prior knowledge of the 2018 plot to use sandpaper on the ball in order to gain reverse swing.

He also hit out at Khawaja, saying the accusations were “complete nonsense” and suggested they were “probably defamatory”.

Warner returned serve just hours after the press conference, saying he stood by all of Khawaja’s claims and wouldn’t rest until the full truth came out.

The former Test opener also accused Cummins of throwing Khawaja under the bus with his sandpaper denials.

Chappell knows a thing or two about controversy.

In 1981, and with NZ requiring six runs off the final ball to force a draw in a one-day match at the MCG, then-Australia captain Chappell ordered his younger brother Trevor Chappell to bowl the last delivery underarm.

While technically legal at the time, the move caused a massive backlash and forced a rule change, with the incident still brought up to this very day.

“Good luck with that. I think 45 years tells me it will probably be a while before it gets trumped,” Chappell replied when asked if ‘sandpapergate’ had finally trumped the underarm controversy.

“Mistakes have been made, I think you have to own them.

“It would’ve been a tough time back in 2018 with all of that going on. I don’t think you’re always ready for these disasters when they happen, but we all make mistakes and they’re all human beings.

“They’re going to make mistakes, and I think we have to accept that and own those decisions, as I had to do 45 years ago.”

Chappell doesn’t want the in-fighting in Australian cricket to continue.

“We don’t want to see Australian cricket eating itself and having a little spat within the family,” Chappell said.

“Hopefully Pat’s put a bit of a line under it and we can start getting on with the summer of cricket.

“It’ll be a distraction, but I think they’ve all had enough experience that when they walk out on the cricket field there’s only one thing they’re thinking about.”

As for Cummins’ claims of having no knowledge of the plan to tamper with the ball?

“We have to believe it,” Chappell said.

“Pat’s a very honourable man and very talented on the field, but I think he’s very talented off the field as well.

“I think from a cricket point of view they just need to move on and focus on what’s in front of them.”

Khawaja was due to make an appearance at a book-signing event in Merrylands on Saturday, but publishers Pelican said it unfortunately had to be postponed.