Pakistan, Nov. 14 -- "Complete and utter nonsense." That's how Australia captain Pat Cummins responded to Usman Khawaja's claim that the entire team was in on the ball-tampering plot that became known as "Sandpapergate" and rocked cricket in 2018.

Cummins staged an extraordinary news conference Friday at the Sydney Cricket Ground, hours ahead of Australia's home-season opening one-day international against England in Perth, to address the allegations published this week in his longtime teammate's autobiography.

He opened the packed news conference by saying he was prepared to stay and answer questions all day if needed, because he wanted to draw a line under the sorry saga. Based on a subsequent response from David Warner, that's unlike...