Ed Smith has been appointed as England national selector.

The former Kent and Middlesex batsman, who played three Tests for England against South Africa in 2003, fills the role vacated when James Whitaker stepped down in an England and Wales Cricket Board shake-up last month.

Smith will appoint a full-time independent selector to work alongside him and England head coach Trevor Bayliss.

Discipline-specific scouts will work under that trio to "ensure comprehensive coverage of the domestic game and the talent pathway".

Smith, 40, said: "I'm delighted to take on the role of national selector. I was very happy with what I was doing previously but the chance to be at the forefront of this development in English cricket was too good an opportunity to turn down.

"Selection and talent ID have always fascinated me and I've explored extensively how they are evolving.

"It is an exciting time for England cricket. I'm very much looking forward to working with Trevor, Joe [Root] and Eoin [Morgan], as we work towards ensuring that the talent in English cricket feeds into consistent performances in all formats of the game."

Director of England Cricket Andrew Strauss said: "Ed stood out as an ideal candidate for the role for a number of reasons. There is real depth to his talent identification knowledge and he's done a great amount of research into the subject.

"He has a rich and varied sum of experiences having played professional cricket for 12 years and having written extensively on cricket and other sports. As well as this he has a strong academic interest in high performance and excellent knowledge of the international game.

"Ed will come to this role with fresh ideas and his input will help us implement a structure that we hope can become world-leading, not just in cricket but in sport generally."