a committed christian, booth is an anglican lay-preacher, and often invokes religious and ethical arguments while talking about issues such as sportsmanship. booth became intensely religious in the 1950s after befriending pastor roy gray, a colleague in district cricket and a classmate at sydney teachers college. gray challenged his friend's faith, and booth reflected that "until that point, sport had really been my god". during booth's career, the media made much of his religious convictions. after scoring his maiden test century, booth was asked whether he felt that god was with him. he replied in the affirmative, and the next day, a newspaper printed the headline "england can't win. god is on brian booth's side."