 Harper in 2009 | |
| Personal information | |
|---|---|
| Full name | Daryl John Harper |
| Born | (1951-10-23)23 October 1951 (age 74) Mile End, South Australia |
| Batting | Right-handed |
| Role | Batsman |
| Umpiring information | |
| Tests umpired | 94 (1998–2011) |
| ODIs umpired | 174 (1994–2011) |
| T20Is umpired | 10 (2007–2009) |
| WODIs umpired | 2 (2002) |
| WT20Is umpired | 3 (2009) |
| FC umpired | 164 (1987–2011) |
| LA umpired | 214 (1988–2011) |
Source:CricketArchive,8 June 2011 | |
Daryl John Harper (born 23 October 1951) is an Australiancricket umpire, who was aTest umpire between 1998 and 2011. He was a member of theICC Elite Panel of Umpires from 2002 until 2011 when the ICC announced that Harper was being stood down at the termination of his contract in July 2011. In June 2011, following criticism from India during theIndia -West Indies Test series Harper retired from umpiring.[1]
Harper was born on 23 October 1951, inMile End, South Australia, and attended Norwood High School before taking up primary school teaching. He had a brief career as anAustralian rules footballumpire before injury forced him to quit.[2]
Harper played as a right-handed batsman inAdelaide grade cricket competition for theTeachers' College andEast Torrens clubs.
In 1983, he switched to umpiring, making his first-class cricket debut in 1987.
Harper made his first appearance in an international fixture in January 1994 when he umpired aOne Day International (ODI) in Perth between New Zealand and South Africa. In November 1998, Harper made histest match umpiring debut when appointed to stand in the 2ndAshes test at theWACA ground alongside umpireVenkat; Harper also stood atthe MCG in the 4th test of that series. After promotion to the National Grid Panel of International Umpires, Harper also began to appear in Test matches away from Australia as the designated independent umpire.
In 2002, theInternational Cricket Council (ICC) introduced a policy of two independent umpires standing in each Test match, and one independent & one home umpire in ODIs. The independent umpires would be chosen from a newly conceivedICC Elite umpire panel comprising the ICC's determination of the top 8 - 10 umpires from around the world. Harper was included in the original line up for this panel, at the time chosen over fellow AustraliansSimon Taufel andDarrell Hair (both of whom subsequently joined the panel in 2003). Harper umpired the opening match of the 2003Cricket World Cup in South Africa, and went on to stand in one of the semi-finals. On 31 August 2005, he adjudicated in his 100th ODI, a match between Zimbabwe and New Zealand at Harare.
He was the third umpire for a trial of the 'player referral' system in 2009.[3] In 2010, England lodged a formal complaint against Harper after a referred caught behind decision was turned down because the volume supplied by the home broadcaster was not good enough to detect the edge.[4][5][6]
The ICC dropped Harper from the2010 ICC World Twenty20 due to "general performance reasons"[7] and demoted him from the Elite Panel in May 2011.[8] The ICC subsequently revealed that Harper would stand in two last Test matches; between West Indies and India atSabina Park andWindsor Park.
Harper retired from umpiring following some heavy criticism from India during the first test against the West Indies.[9]Dave Richardson, the ICC Cricket manager, said Harper received "unfair criticism" from the Indian players and that his correct decision making percentage against India was at 96 percent, which was "considerably above average".[6] Harper said he got 94% of his decisions in the match right, but conceded he made two errors in the game.[10]
As of 4 June 2010:
| First | Latest | Total | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tests | Australia v England atPerth, Nov 1998 | New Zealand v Pakistan at Wellington, Jan 2011 | 94 |
| ODIs | New Zealand v South Africa atPerth, Jan 1994 | Bangladesh v South Africa at Dhaka, March 2011 | 174 |
| T20Is | South Africa v West Indies atJohannesburg, Sep 2007 | Pakistan v Sri Lanka atLord's, Jun 2009 | 10 |