Thomas, who played rugby union professionally, was previously performance director at British Gymnastics for five years, and oversaw the sport's push for medals at the Tokyo Olympics.

Warwickshire's chief executive, Stuart Cain, said that Thomas' expertise would be utilised to "create something special" at the club.

"James is recognised in high performance sport as a real talent and has demonstrated ability to cross sports and quickly grasp what's important in order to deliver success," Cain said.

"We wanted someone with real strategic experience of creating world-class, successful performance environments. He's done that in football, arguably one of the toughest performance environments in world sport, and been equally successful with individual athletes in high-pressure Olympic sports.

"He's proved that he can move in to a new sport and quickly create a successful performance environment that leads to medals and trophies by developing the facilities and structures needed to create world-class players and teams.

"The cricket leadership team has more than 200 years of technical cricket experience and 75 years' experience of being a Bear. Combining this with James' expertise will create something special.

"He knows how to build teams as well as individuals that can handle high-pressure situations and deliver success. This was one of the areas of improvement identified in the recent high performance review.

"Having worked globally, he also understands the impact of other leagues on domestic structures, something we really need to get our head around as franchise cricket develops.

"The review also demonstrated our need to modernise the way we recruit and prepare for games with greater use of data and analysis. James has some really interesting ideas and plenty of experience in this space which will help us build more accountability and structure in to how we bring in and develop players, as well as create winning teams.

"He's also used to working with multiple coaches working across different disciplines in men's and women's sport. Another important consideration as he will be accountable for success across three different teams playing four different formats of the game.

"I think James' desire to become a Bear illustrates how the world of cricket is changing and professionalising as a global sport to rival football."

Although Thomas does not make the switch to Edgbaston until the summer, Warwickshire said he would spend time with the men's and women's squads in pre-season "as well as other leading names from the world of cricket" to prepare him for the role.

Thomas said: "I am delighted to take on the role of performance director at Warwickshire County Cricket Club. Throughout the recruitment process I was impressed by the club's desire to retain and celebrate its proud Bears culture, whilst embracing the opportunity to evolve and build a high-performance environment that's capable of achieving sustained, long term success.

"I am excited to meet the players, coaches and wider staff, as we look to work together to achieve extraordinary cricket performances in the future."