use str2Date function with date imported from excel

I try to use the following code to get date from excel sheet but the date value after using str2date is empty although sEmpDate value is "04/04/1993"

date  EmpDate;

str   sEmpDate; 

sEmpDate=cells.item(row, 3).value().bStr();           

EmpDate=str2Date(sEmpDate,123);

info(strFmt("%1",sEmpDate));       

info(strFmt("%1",EmpDate));