Cricket South Africa chief Chris Nenzani has rejected suggestions that he changed his stand at the last moment by cutting a deal at the International Cricket Council's Executive Board meeting in Singapore last week which changed the structure of the world governing body.
"We did not form alliances or cut deals with any other country," said Nenzani in a CSA release detailing the proceedings of a media conference he addressed in Cape Town today.
Nenzani said he followed what he was mandated to do by CSA Board members.
"I would just like to correct the misleading perception that we changed our vote at the last moment. That is not the case. I exercised our vote in terms of the mandate given to me by my fellow Board members and the Members' Forum at our joint sitting on February 1.
"This (sitting) was also attended by representatives of the South African Cricketers' Association and SASCOC (national sporting body) as observers to make it an all-inclusive process," he said.
He though conceded that he held discussions, prior to the ICC meeting, with representatives of Sri Lanka and Pakistan Boards who were against the restructuring process but abstained from voting.
"I did attend a meeting with the representatives of Sri Lanka and Pakistan ahead of the meeting so that they were aware of our position.
"What we have achieved is not the ideal outcome but it is the best possible one that was available to us both for our own future and that of the global game," Nenzani added.
As per the decisions taken on Saturday, BCCI President N Srinivasan will take over as Chairman of the ICC Board from July.
A new Executive Committee will be formed to report to the Board. The initial chair of this Executive Committee (ExCo) will be Wally Edwards from Cricket Australia while the chair of the Finance and Commercial Affairs Committee (F&CA) will be Giles Clarke from the ECB.
The proposal was initially opposed by Pakistan, Sri Lanka and South Africa but the ICC was able to pass it after gaining the support of eight of the ICC's 10 full members.
At the meeting, South Africa voted in favour of the plan, while Sri Lanka and Pakistan abstained from voting.
The CSA chief maintained that the constitution of ICC has been protected by the new proposal.
