Peter Moores is proud of his record for bringing quality overseas players to Sussex during his eight years as coach.

Michael Di Venuto, Michael Bevan, Murray Goodwin and, of course, Mushtaq Ahmed have all made outstanding contributions to one of the most successful eras in the county's history.

Johan van der Wath is a relative unknown compared to that quartet, but by the time his six-week stint with the county ends the 27-year-old is confident he can make just as favourable an impression.

The South African pace bowler wouldn't be the first short-term overseas signing in the history of the county game who did well enough at one club to earn himself a longer contract somewhere else. Just ask Di Venuto, who joined Derbyshire after a successful summer deputising for Bevan at Hove in 1999.

Van der Wath is looking no further forward than the four Championship and seven one-day games he will play before being replaced by Pakistan's Rana Naved ul-Hasan just before Sussex's annual five days at Arundel on June 15.

He said: "I'm not here for a full season so I'm not really thinking about trying to get another county afterwards.

"I just want to do well for myself, take a few wickets and if that happens then hopefully Sussex will benefit too."

The county concluded the deal to bring over Rana fairly quickly, but the search for an early season locum proved much more troublesome.

Several players were approached including van der Wath's fellow South African Andre Nel, Australian Andy Bichel and Kyle Mills of New Zealand.

Moores admits he knew little about van der Wath when he was offered to Sussex by an agent, but he did his homework.

He spoke to Allan Donald, a former team-mate at Free State, van der Wath's coach Corrie van Zyl and even Andy Moles, the former Warwickshire opener who has considerable coaching experience in South Africa. All three said the same: Sign him.

"Those are three guys whose views I respect a lot," said Moores. "What came across when I spoke to them and to Johan was that here was a very committed cricketer who is coming from a winning set-up at Free State hopefully into a winning set-up with Sussex."

He met his new team-mates for the first time at Trent Bridge on Tuesday afternoon after arriving at Heathrow earlier in the day. In Mark Davis and James Kirtley, it was a case of getting reacquainted with two players he has played against in the past in South Africa.

The dark, rain-threatening Nottinghamshire skyline must have felt like a world removed from late summer on the high veldt, but van der Wath is not totally alien to English - and even Scottish - conditions having played club cricket over in the past for Marske in North Yorkshire and Ayr.

County cricket is another step up and Sussex's offer was accepted more or less straight away. He sees it as another opportunity to broaden his cricketing experience as part of a long-term career objective to break into the South African one-day squad before the next World Cup in April 2007.

Kent's new signing Martin van Jaarsveld, who made two hundreds on his debut last week, got so fed up waiting for the South African selectors to pick him that he decided to re-classify as a Kolpak player. The same option was open to van der Wath but he declined after discussing his options with his coach van Zyl.

"I've been quite keen to come to England for a while," he said. "Originally, Koplak was an option but Corrie talked me out of it. Playing for my country is still an ambition of mine and I've held back because I'm still hoping to get into the South African team, you never know what might happen in the future.

"That's why the deal with Sussex suits me. I've had a good season with Free State and I am looking forward to a rest soon, but this is a good opportunity for me to show people what I can do."

A record of 136 first-class wickets at 26.75 is more than respectable and the bonus with van der Wath is he is capable with the bat, having scored two first-class hundreds including one earlier this year when he played in all eight of Free State's matches in the four-day competition back home.

At well over 6ft and with the build of a middleweight boxer, he looks like a fast bowler if nothing else.

"His stats excite me," said Moores. "He's a genuine strike bowler and the sort of batsman coming in at No.8 who could be very dangerous."

Moores hasn't signed an overseas duffer yet and it would be a surprise if he's started with van der Wath, a player with ambition, ability and the sort of commitment to the cause which Moores and skipper Chris Adams love.