‘I was stupid’: Boon admits regret over infamous 52-beer flight

Australian cricket great David Boon is well-known for his starring role in a story that has reached mythic proportions.

The former batsman is infamous for having drunk 52 beers on a flight to England in 1989 – something Boon’s teammates swear happened but that the man himself has in the past described as a fairytale.

But in a podcast recorded late last year, Boon admitted he regretted the incident.

“What I won’t deny is that we had a beer,” Boon said on the BackChat Sports Show.

“But, to be perfectly honest, if it was that many, how the hell would I know.

“I do know the exercise was initiated by Terry Alderman, and he was the one that initially gathered information and was in charge of the whole thing.

“Then my mate … Geoffrey Robert … egged me on … I had drinking partners throughout.

“Terry didn’t drop out that many before I managed to do whatever it was.

“But, mate, I’ve got to be brutally honest here, I won’t deny it happened. We all do stupid things in our lives and I’ll finish by just being serious.

“You have fun, you do something and then you think ‘Shit, what about the ramifications to everything else’, to your family, to your children.

David Boon is now an ICC match referee and chair of Cricket Tasmania.Credit: Getty Images

“It caused some crap over the years, and it’s something that I regret a lot. Can’t deny it but I do regret it. And I was stupid to be able to do that when you’re in the public eye.”

Airborne beer-drinking records were a long-celebrated part of the “larrikin” culture of the Australian team.

Countless books and sportsman’s nights have heard about how Doug Walters drank 44 cans of lager on a flight from Sydney to London’s Heathrow Airport in 1977.

According to the reported folklore, the team’s long-serving wicket-keeper, the late Rod Marsh, served as Walters’ “pacemaker” on that flight and believed he had matched his teammate “can for can”.

David Boon batting for Tasmania during his playing days.Credit: Ken Irwin

When the team flew to London for the 1983 World Cup, Marsh set his sights on claiming the record outright.

His great mate, legendary fast bowler Dennis Lillee, dedicated an entire chapter of his autobiography Lillee: Over and Out to Marsh’s record attempt.

Lillee detailed how the team appointed separate pacemakers to chaperone Marsh and keep his tally through each leg of the flight from Sydney to London, with stopovers in Singapore and Bahrain.

“The other passengers were urging him on and his teammates were behind him to a man. Even the [plane’s] captain chimed in with an announcement that not only was the flight on schedule but so, too, was Australia’s vice-captain Rodney Marsh, who was attempting to break a world drinking record,” Lillee wrote.

With the plane descending towards Heathrow, Lillee recalled Marsh struggling to polish off the record-breaking 45th can.

“I can’t make it,” Marsh reportedly told his teammates.

“‘Bullshit,’ we chorused. This challenge had by now assumed almost the significance of winning the Ashes series. There would be no capitulation,” Lillee wrote.

“We tilted Rodney’s head back and literally force-fed him. He gurgled, he gasped and he groaned. But, by God, he drank it.”

In more recent times, the team has toned down its drinking culture, at least publicly.

Carlton & United Breweries pulled stumps on its sponsorship of the Australian cricket team in 2017, and the VB logo no longer adorns Australian playing shirts.

Last month’s World Cup final between Australia and India was played in the Indian state of Gujarat – home of the prime minister Narendra Modi – where alcohol is illegal. However, foreigners are able to obtain it with a permit, which some of the Australian squad did before the game preparing for their post-match celebrations or commiserations.

Despite some social media posts that suggested members of the team celebrated their win with vigour, they were careful to avoid posting images that showed alcohol.

Last year, captain Pat Cummins was praised – and criticised by some – for insisting the team temper the use of alcohol in its celebrations so that Muslim teammate Usman Khawaja could share the victory dais with them after their home Ashes win.

Despite his regret over his actions on the 1989 flight, Boon has featured in promotions for Victoria Bitter, including a TV ad in 2005. Around the same time, VB’s parent company Foster’s ran a “Boonie” figurine promotion, which it later apologised for because it glorified binge-drinking.

Boon retired from international cricket in 1996 but has not been lost to the sport since then. Now 62, he was an Australian selector from 2000-11 and is an ICC match referee. He has also held a variety of roles for Cricket Tasmania, and is currently the chair.

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