Saturday, 12th May 2007 at 11:26 am

Cricketers come out of hiding

Graeme Smith’s revelation on Nic Marais’s breakfast show on KFM in Cape Town this week that the team had received death threats on their return from the World Cup, prompted much speculation around the country, with rumours mounting that the entire team had slipped out of the country, and taken up residence under assumed names in a mountain village in Bolivia.

Reassuring to have evidence, then, that not only are the boys in South Africa, but are back in familiar territory, with beers firmly in hand. And those beers would be Pilsner Urquells, the SAB brand sponsoring the SuperSport Shoot-out at Pinnacle Point this weekend. And while Smith himself will have mixed feelings about the event (he managed two of his more forgettable hundreds last year), several of his team-mates will be very fired up.

Shaun Pollock finished runner-up a year ago to former pro Selwyn Nathan; AB de Villiers and Mark Boucher (pictured here with Jacques Kallis and David Frost) hover just above scratch; and Ashwell Prince dished out a 7 and 6 thumping to Feverpictcher ed Dan Nicholl on the same course just before the World Cup. Lucky victory, needless to say…

And with plenty of practice at big nights out, they should be primed for what is a decidedly hedonistic weekend of golf - last year Mark Fish famously woke Touchline Media boss Marc Blachowitz up at four in the morning by letting loose with a vuvuzela from six inches, and Shaun Bartlett and Mark Williams will be his chief lieutenants once again. Francois Pienaar leads the rugby crew, Johnny de Lange heads up the government contingent, and there are businessmen aplenty; it’s the cricketers Feverpitcher is happy to see out on the course, however, and with no Australians in sight, we’re picking one of them as champion at Pinnacle Point this year.