A right-handed batsman and a very occasional off-spin bowler, he played first-class cricket for both his home state Tasmania and English county side Durham.
Wisden wrote, "Boon's achievement in becoming a fine Test player from a state which at that stage was still to enter the Sheffield Shield [sic] is strong evidence of his singular determination".
A good performance for the Prime Minister's XI in 1984–85 led to Boon's Test debut, against the West Indies at Brisbane.
After Kepler Wessels quit the team in mid-summer, Boon was promoted to open with debutant Geoff Marsh for the Test series against India.
Boon was also tried as an opener in the World Series Cup and made four half-centuries in twelve innings as Australia won the tournament for the first time in three years.
Although Australia lost all three matches, Boon had scores of 71, 62 and 73, which secured his place for the fourth World Cup, held in India and Pakistan later in the year.
His ability to negotiate the bowling of Kiwi fast bowler Richard Hadlee contributed greatly to Australia winning its first Test series in four years.
Against Sri Lanka at the Adelaide Oval he hit his highest ODI score of 122 (from 130 balls)[6] and made 47 and 43 in the two finals of the World Series Cup, when Australia again defeated New Zealand.
In January 1988, he made a fighting 184 not out in the second innings of the Bicentennial Test at Sydney to extricate Australia from a potentially match-losing position.
His ODI form also hit a slump, and he contributed only one major innings in the World Series Cup, 71 against the West Indies at Sydney.
Boon returned to the number three position when Mark Taylor was brought into the team to partner Geoff Marsh.
Dismissed for 97 by the part time bowling of Graham Gooch in the following Test, Boon made amends with 121 in the second innings at Adelaide.
As a member of the team that famously won the Frank Worrell Trophy in the Caribbean in 1995, he made one half-century (67 at Antigua) in six innings.
Following his retirement from international cricket, Boon continued playing for Tasmania and signed to captain Durham in the English county championship.
There was an unidentified teammate of ours at Durham who kept cutting the end of the other players' socks off, and David Boon got really angry, way angrier than the others.
"[citation needed] Boon was formerly a member of the Cricket Australia selection board, along with Merv Hughes, Andrew Hilditch and the newly appointed Jamie Cox.
Part of the promotion was the sale of a talking David Boon figurine with purchases of beer, which would make comments when prompted by Channel Nine commentary.
The Oz Brothers idolise Boon, and are long bemused that he is continually overlooked for the honour of being named "Australian of the Year".
[24] Responding to the story, Ian Chappell said, "In my day 58 [sic] beers between London and Sydney would have virtually classified you as a teetotaller.
"[25] Boon had always denied the story, adding "If people haven’t got something else to talk about they have led a fucking boring life",[25] but, as Rob Smyth reported in The Guardian, "there are enough witnesses, one or two of them sober, to suggest that it happened".