Former South Africa captain Kepler Wessels will debut as a Cricket Australia match referee later this month.

Wessels, who played international cricket for South Africa and Australia, will officiate Women’s National Cricket League matches in Brisbane.

Later this year, he will oversee a fixture between a Cricket Australia XI and the touring South Africans, also in Brisbane.

Wessels played 24 Tests for Australia and 16 more for the Proteas – and will be partnered by fellow newcomer David Gilbert on the CA match referees panel.

‘They each bring exceptional character and knowledge of the game to our team. We are looking forward to what they will bring,’ the Sydney Morning Herald quoted CA match officials manager Sean Easey.

The steely Wessels captained a Proteas team spearheaded by fast bowlers Allan Donald, Fanie de Villiers and Brett Schultz through the early 1990s. More than two decades later, pace aces Dale Steyn, Kagiso Rabada and Lungi Ngidi are leading the bowling attack.

‘This pace attack is very competitive. If all are fit, Dale, Rabada, Vernon Philander, they compare very well with the pace attacks of the 1990s that had the likes of Donald, Fanie de Villiers and Schultz,’ the 61-year-old Wessels told the Hindustan Times recently.