David Boon calls time on 14-year career as match referee
Boon officiated in 87 Tests, 190 ODIs and 119 T20Is (including seven women's T20Is)
ESPNcricinfo staff
30-Apr-2025 • 5 hrs ago
David Boon, in his last Test as a match referee, is felicitated at the toss • BCB
David Boon, the former Australia batter, has ended his 14-year career as an ICC match referee on Wednesday, with the second Bangladesh-Zimbabwe Test in Chattogram his final assignment. Boon officiated in 87 Tests, 190 ODIs and 119 T20Is (including seven women's T20Is).
Boon, 64, is now set to don a new hat as a board director at Cricket Australia (CA), with whom he'd been previously associated as national selector. Prior to his association with the ICC as a match referee, Boon had also served in the administration at Cricket Tasmania for 12 years following a 12-year international career.
"It is with mixed emotions that I finish my time as a match referee with the ICC," Boon said in a statement. "It has been an incredible honour and pleasure to be a part of this journey spanning nearly 14 years. I am grateful for the opportunity, including the challenges, the many cherished memories and friendships I've made along the way.
"I feel privileged to have stayed so connected to our great game, witnessing international cricket from such close quarters. I hope that I leave having made a difference and contributed to officiating the world game. I want to express my heartfelt gratitude to the ICC and Cricket Australia for their support over the years in this chapter of my involvement in the game."
As Boon stepped aside formally, he touched upon a few areas of opportunity at the ICC with regard to the rules. "I'm not sure about the over-rates, whether we've got that right," he said. "Pace of play can be an issue. And I'd hope from an administrative point of view we have a massive umbrella over cricket, and every nation looks at themselves as being under that umbrella form rather than their own little pieces of turf."
Boon's career as a player stretched from 1984 to 1996. He won four Ashes titles as a player, and one 50-over World Cup in 1987, a tournament where he was named layer of the final for top scoring with 75 as Australia beat England. In all, Boon scored 7422 runs in 107 Tests with 21 centuries and 5964 runs in 181 ODIs with five centuries.