Sri Lanka Cricket have appointed former Test captain Marvan Atapattu as the head coach, making him the island nation’s seventh coach in the last four years.

A selection committee interviewed Atapattu, 43, and one other candidate on Tuesday before recommending him for the job, a news release from Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) on Wednesday said.

The SLC executive committee then “unanimously approved and appointed Mr. Marvan Attapattu to the position of national head coach… with immediate effect”, the release said.

Atapattu had served as the interim coach for three months before his full-time appointment on Wednesday, guiding the team during the recent series against England, South Africa and Pakistan.

The former batsman replaces Englishman Paul Farbrace who quit in April after just four months on the job to take over as England’s deputy coach under Peter Moores.

Sri Lanka are set to play seven ODIs against England from November 26 as part of their build-up to the 2015 World Cup being hosted by Australia and New Zealand.

They are also due to tour New Zealand in December and January.

A prolific right-hander, Atapattu scored 5,502 runs from 90 Tests, including six double-hundreds, after making his debut against India in 1990.

His 8,529 one-day runs included 11 hundreds.

Atapattu will be the latest addition in a succession of coaches for Sri Lanka since 2010, following Trevor Bayliss, Stuart Law, Rumesh Ratnayake, Geoff Marsh, Graham Ford and Farbrace.