Cricket South Africa (CSA) president Chris Nenzani says the organisation has not formally decided who to back to replace Shashank Manohar as ICC chairperson. 

On Thursday, CSA's Director of Cricket Graeme Smith raised eyebrows when, during a video press conference with South African media, he publicly backed current BCCI boss and former Indian captain Sourav Ganguly for the role. 

It was a somewhat strange development given that Smith wasn't asked to comment on ICC matters, and later on Thursday it became clear that the CSA board and president Nenzani had been taken off guard by the comments. 

"We must respect both the ICC protocol and our own protocol in deciding which candidate to back," said CSA president and chairperson of the board, Nenzani, in a CSA press release on Thursday night, hours after Smith's comments. 

"There have been no candidates nominated as yet and once such nominations have been made the board of CSA will take its decision in terms of its own protocol and give the chairman the mandate to exercise his vote as an ICC board director accordingly.

"We have the highest regard for the opinions of our Director of Cricket, Graeme Smith, who is a well-respected figure in world cricket and has already made an immense contribution in fulfilling his mandate to make our cricket teams world leaders again.

"At the moment we don’t want to anticipate any candidates who may be nominated for this important position to lead the game we all love."

Manohar is nearing the end of his two-year tenure in the role with the next ICC elections expected to take place in July.

- Compiled by Sport24 staff