Daryl Harper - Umpiring

Umpiring

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 a One Day International (ODI) in Perth between New Zealand and South Africa. In November 1998 Harper made his test match debut when appointed to stand in the 2nd Ashes test at the WACA ground alongside umpire Venkat; Harper also stood at the 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 the International 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 conceived ICC 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 Australians Simon Taufel and Darrell Hair (both of whom subsequently joined the panel in 2003). Harper umpired the opening match of the 2003 Cricket 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, where he made a series of errors. In 2010 England lodged a formal complaint against Harper after a referred caught behind decision was turned down due to the volume on the replay not being high enough to detect the edge. Many players including former English Cricket Team captain Nasser Hussain demanded removal of Harper from any type of umpiring panel. The ICC later found that while the sound was audible on Sky's TV's overseas coverage the equipment supplied by the home broadcaster was inferior. The ICC dropped Harper from the 2010 ICC World Twenty20 due to "general performance reasons".

The ICC announced their decision to demote Harper from the Elite Panel in May 2011. The ICC subsequently revealed that Harper would stand in two last Test matches; between West Indies and India at Sabina Park and Windsor Park. Harper retired from umpiring following some heavy criticism from India during the first test against the West Indies. 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". He was replaced for the third Test by Richard Kettleborough. In a widely reported interview, Harper candidly agreed with his mistakes in that test "one LBW against Harbhajan that would have been reversed had Decision Review System been available. I also failed to detect a no ball when West Indian Bishoo's backfoot touched the side or return crease".