With the departure of West Indian Desmond Haynes, the national call-up of Gary Kirsten and the inevitable call-up of Herschelle Gibbs, the Western Province opening spots will present some problems. The contracting of the right-handed former Boland player goes some way to avoid having to blood two novices for the all important First XI opening slots. The 22-year-old Ferreira brings promise to a position which he has been asked to fill in an at-times brittle Boland batting line-up. Ferreira is an attacking stroker of the ball and has already punished a few provincial attacks in the domestic limited-overs competition. With a strong batting line-up to back him up, Ferreira could start pushing up his first class batting average.

Thanks: Ashraf Conrad (cnrash02@socsci.uct.ac.za)