Daryl Harper

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Personal information
Daryl Harper
Australia
Full name	Daryl John Harper
Born	23 October 1951 (1951-10-23) (age 56)
	Adelaide, South Australia, Australia
Batting style	Right-hand bat
Umpiring information
Tests umpired	71 (1998–present)
ODIs umpired	150 (1994–present)
IT20s umpired	6 (2007–present)
As of 23 April 2008 Source: cricketarchive

Daryl John Harper, (born 23 October 1951 in Adelaide, South Australia), is a current Australian Test cricket match umpire, from South Australia.

Harper, formerly a primary school teacher, played as a right-handed batsman in the Adelaide Grade cricket competition for the Teachers' College and East Torrens clubs. From here he started umpiring, and made his debut as a first-class umpire in 1987. After working his way up through the ranks he was appointed to his first One Day International (ODI) in January 1994 - a fixture between New Zealand and South Africa at Perth. He continued to develop as an umpire, and was rewarded for impressive performances when, in November 1998, he was appointed to stand in his first test match - the 2nd Ashes Test at the WACA alongside umpire Venkat. He also stood in the exciting 4th test of that Ashes series at the MCG. He was subsequently promoted to the National Grid Panel of International Umpires, and began to stand in test matches away from Australia as the neutral umpire.

In 2002 the ICC introduced a policy of two neutral umpires standing in each test match, and one neutral & one home umpire in ODIs. The neutral umpires were to be chosen from a new ICC Elite umpire panel, which would be made up of the top 8 - 10 umpires from around the world. Harper had the honour of being included in the original line up for this panel, being chosen in preference to fellow Australians Simon Taufel and Darrell Hair. He is one of just three umpires to have maintained their place on that panel, the others being Steve Bucknor and Rudi Koertzen, which is a testament to his umpiring ability. He also had the honour of umpiring the opening match of the 2003 Cricket World Cup in South Africa, and went on to stand in one of the semi-finals. Another landmark in his career was his 100th ODI, the match between Zimbabwe and New Zealand at Harare on August 31st 2005.

[edit] International Umpiring Statistics

	First	Last	Total
Tests	Australia v England at Perth, Nov 1998	New Zealand v England at Napier, Mar 2008	71
ODIs	South Africa v New Zealand at Perth, Jan 1994	Australia v India at Sydney, Mar 2008	150
20/20s	South Africa v West Indies at Johannesburg, Sep 2007	New Zealand v Pakistan at Cape Town, Sep 2007	6