Heinrich Malan said he was ‘humbled’ on being given his first lead role in the international arena after being appointed Ireland head coach in succession to fellow South African Graham Ford.

Malan, who is currently head of Male Performance and head coach of Auckland has been given a three-year contract, starting in March, when he will lead the squad on a four-week tour of Zimbabwe, which is scheduled to include Ireland’s fourth Test match.

Much like his predecessor, who played only seven first class games before going into coaching, Malan’s playing career lasted only five seasons.

After gaining a Level 3 certificate in South Africa he moved to New Zealand and was Assistant Coach for the national team in last year's series in England, and was also head coach of New Zealand A from 2018.

With white-ball cricket and World Cup qualifying tournaments set to dominate the next three years, Malan comes highly recommended after leading Central Districts to provincial one-day titles in 2015 and 2016 and the T20 Smash in 2019 when he was snapped up by Auckland who won the one-day competition in 2020.

New Zealand born Nigel Jones, captain of NCU champions CIYMS and coach of Leinster Lightning, said he looks like a good fit and looks forward to learning off him and working with him.

“Age-wise and the length of time he has been coaching already, the environments he has been in, his cv reads pretty well and sounds like a good man to have,” said Jones.

“He has worked with some of the top New Zealand players, including Ross Taylor, Adam Milne and Ajaz Patel with Central Districts and Martin Guptill, Kyle Jamieson and Lockie Ferguson at Auckland, so it all sounds good.”

In his first comments after his appointment Malan described it as “very humbling and a huge honour to be appointed head coach”.

The 40-year-old, who is married with three children added: “We have an exciting squad that has demonstrated they have the ability to compete with the best players around the world. It is an exciting challenge and something that we, as a family, are really looking forward to.”

After paying tribute to Ford’s four-year term, which has put “some serious building blocks in place, which I believe we can build on going forward spoke, he about his coaching philosophy.

“It has certainly evolved over time. While I came up through the South African system, the opportunity to move to New Zealand in 2013 really enhanced my coaching experiences and hopefully I can share these experiences and help our players improve and compete consistently across formats. And that is the key – to create greater consistency of performance over the long term.

“I am very keen to get to know this group of players and staff to collaboratively shape our environment through the way we want to operate on a daily basis.

“The wheel in Irish cricket is turning nicely for the stage it is at but this point in time is a great opportunity to review what – and how – we are operating to not only grow the wheel but make that wheel turn quicker.”

Ironically, the appointment has been confirmed before the external review into the preparation for and performance at last year’s T20 World Cup has reached board level. It is currently with the Cricket Ireland Steering Group.

The qualifying tournament for this year’s T20 World Cup, in Australia in October, takes place in Oman next month, which will end Interim Head Coach David Ripley’s time in charge.

Malan is lined up to see all three formats in his first six weeks in the job with Ireland scheduled to play Zimbabwe in a one-off Test match plus five one-day internationals and three T20Is.