South Africa call on Louw

South Africa will go into the one-day series against Kenya without the services of Graeme Smith or ICC Test Player of the Year Dale Steyn.

Proteas captain Smith is suffering from tennis elbow, while fast bowler Steyn is not match fit after recovering from a mystery illness.

South Africa have instead called up uncapped Dolphins all-rounder Johann Louw for the two-ODI series, which gets under way in Bloemfontein on Friday.

"It was originally our intention only to add a 14th player to the squad as a replacement for Ryan McLaren after the Kenya matches," said acting national selection convener Gerald Majola.

Johann Louw is hooked by Somerset's Omari Banks while on duty for Northamptonshire

"But the fact of the matter is that neither Graeme Smith nor Dale Steyn is likely to play against Kenya which would leave us with only 11 players."

Proteas coach Mickey Arthur added: "I have been most impressed by Johann's commitment, training ethos and skills level during the two days of our training camp to date and I am delighted to have him in the squad."

The 29-year-old brings with him a wealth of experience at domestic level, having played more than 100 limited-overs games both in South Africa and in England in which he has scored more than 1,000 runs and taken more than 160 wickets.

When he first joined Northamptonshire in English county cricket in 2004, he was rated as one of the best 'death' bowlers in the country.

Louw had a less successful spell as an overseas player at Wantage Road in 2008.

He was called up for South Africa A's recent Test series against Sri Lanka A towards the end of the English domestic season.

Steyn had his first bowl of the new season in the nets at the De Beers Diamond Oval on Tuesday and operated at what coach Arthur estimated at about 60%.

He is set to continue to work out in the nets for the next week with his comeback match the one-off Twenty20 International against Bangladesh next Wednesday.