Former prime minister Bob
Hawke has turned back the clock and sculled a beer at the Sydney
Cricket Ground to the delight of cheering fans.

The 82-year-old Labor legend, who famously set a world speed drinking
record as a student at Oxford University in the 1950s, was watching
Australia play India in the second Test on January 4 when fans presented
him with a cup of beer.


"One for the country, Robert," a spectator yelled as Hawke accepted the amber ale and downed it in one gulp.

He then continued out of the pavilion flanked by police and SCG staff.

Footage of the feat was uploaded to YouTube by Glenn Braddon yesterday and posted on viral site Reddit about 3pm (AEDT) today.

Hawke, considered by many political analysts to be Australia’s most popular prime minister, is widely-known as a beer-drinker.

He wrote of how he broke the world speed drinking record as a student in his 1994 book, The Hawke Memoirs, by downing two-and-a-half pints of beer, the equivalent of a yard of ale, from a sconce pot in eleven seconds.

He was leader of the ACTU before becoming Labor leader and prime minister in 1983 until December 1991.