Cricket Australia chief Kevin Roberts has dismissed concerns the impending returns of the team's former leaders will unsettle the resurgent side as it emerged Australia's bowlers threatened not to play alongside David Warner in the final Test in South Africa.

Multiple sources have confirmed that star bowlers Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood, Pat Cummins and Nathan Lyon were intending to withdraw from the fourth Test of last year's infamous series if Warner had been free to play.

While Steve Smith and Cameron Bancroft had been censured by the International Cricket Council for their involvement in the Cape Town ball tampering controversy, Warner was not charged but was later found by a CA investigation to be the "architect" of the sandpaper plot.

All three were suspended before the Johannesburg Test so it's unknown if the bowlers would have followed through with their threats. Nevertheless, the revelation highlights the extent of the fracture within the dressing-room in the immediate aftermath of one of the most damaging events in Australian cricket history.