Former England rugby union fly-half Rob Andrew has followed in the footsteps of Australia's Pat Howard, moving from rugby union administration to cricket.
Andrew was on Tuesday named the surprise choice as Sussex's new chief executive.
Andrew, who won 71 caps for England from 1985 to 1997, will take up the role in January, working at all levels of cricket in the county.
Only a few months ago, the 53-year-old left his position as the Rugby Football Union's professional rugby director after 10 years with the governing body.
Howard played 20 Tests with the Wallabies before joining the Australian Rugby Union's high performance unit. Then in 2011, Howard made the move to a similar position with Cricket Australia.
Andrew came in for criticism several times during his RFU tenure, in part due to his role in appointing and dismissing Brian Ashton as England coach.
Although Ashton's England side unexpectedly reached the 2007 World Cup final, his reign generally continued a period of underachievement following the 2003 World Cup triumph that continued until Eddie Jones' appointment a year ago.
Andrew is now tasked with overseeing Sussex as they seek to return to the County Championship's top flight and navigate a period of likely change for all first-class counties with moves towards the possible introduction of a city-based Twenty20 competition.
With the ECB's proposed T20 tournament set to be played at international cricket grounds, Sussex may struggle to keep drawing money-spinning large crowds to Hove even if the T20 Blast continues.
"I will be focusing on driving forward the strategy over the next few years and helping write the next chapter in the rich history of cricket in Sussex," said Andrew.
"These are exciting times for Sussex cricket and cricket in general and I can't wait to get started."
Andrew has some cricket pedigree, having played mainly as an opening batsman for Cambridge University and the Combined Universities in the mid-1980s.
His accomplished rugby career, which included being a World Cup runner-up in 1991 and winning five British and Irish Lions caps, was ended by injury in 1999.
At the time he was acting as director of rugby for Newcastle. He continued as director of rugby until 2006, when he started his decade at the RFU initially as England's director of elite rugby.
In 2011 Andrew briefly held the role of director of rugby operations. Later that year he became professional rugby director, with no responsibility for the England team.
