On 26 September 2012, he was named to the ICC Elite Umpire Panel, the highest umpiring body in the game of cricket, replacing his fellow Australian Simon Taufel, who retired from the panel to take up a newly created ICC supervisory and training position.
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).
Simon James Arthur Taufel, (born 21 January 1971 in St Leonards, New South Wales), is a retired Australian cricket umpire who was a member of the ICC Elite umpire panel.
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Taufel has been named the top umpire of the year five times, and in August 2006 the ICC's annual umpire review officially ranked second for accuracy (behind Darrell Hair), and top overall.
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The full list of umpires is: Billy Bowden, Aleem Dar, Steve Davis, Billy Doctrove, Ian Gould, Tony Hill, Rudi Koertzen, Asoka de Silva, Simon Taufel, Asad Rauf (all from the Emirates Elite Panel of ICC Umpires), Marais Erasmus, Shavir Tarapore and Rod Tucker (all from the Emirates International Panel of ICC Umpires).