Daryl Harper

Daryl John Harper, (born 23 October 1951) is an Australian cricket umpire, who was a Test umpire between 1998 and 2011. He was a member of the Elite Panel of ICC 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 the India-West Indies Test series Harper retired from umpiring.

Harper was born in the Adelaide suburb of Mile End in 1951 and attended Norwood High School before taking up primary school teaching. He had a brief career as an Australian rules football umpire before injury forced him to quit.

Harper played as a right-handed batsman in Adelaide grade cricket competition for the Teachers' College and East 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 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.