Roger Andrew Harper (born 17 March 1963) is a Guyanese former

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by s ...

er turned coach, who played both

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and One Day International cricket for the

West Indies cricket team The West Indies cricket team, nicknamed the Windies, is a multi-national men's cricket team representing the mainly English-speaking countries and territories in the Caribbean region and administered by Cricket West Indies. The players on t ...

. His international career lasted 13 years, from 1983 to 1996, and he was later described as a "fabulous" fielder. His Test bowling average of 28.06 is superior to that of Lance Gibbs, giving him the leading average among all West Indian spinners with at least 25 Test wickets. One of his most notable performances was against South Africa in the Quarter Finals of the

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when he took 4/47 to allow the West Indies to seize control of the match. Harper was an all-rounder who batted right-handed and bowled right-arm

off break Off spin is a type of finger spin bowling in cricket. A bowler who uses this technique is called an off spinner. Off spinners are right-handed spin bowlers who use their fingers to spin the ball. Their normal delivery is an off break, which spi ...

s, although suffering from the yips during part of his career. As a player, he recorded 535 runs and 46 wickets in his 25 Tests, and he played 200 first class matches. As a player he made many of his best performances in England. His Test batting and bowling averages in England were better than his averages elsewhere, he recorded both his best Test bowling figures of 6/57 and his highest test score (74) against England at

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, respectively in 1984 and 1988, and he made his highest first-class score of 234 while playing for

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(while batting at no.7) against

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in 1986. It was in England (at

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) that he also pulled off his most famous piece of fielding to run out

Graham Gooch Graham Alan Gooch, (born 23 July 1953) is a former English first-class cricketer who captained Essex and England. He was one of the most successful international batsmen of his generation, and through a career spanning from 1973 until 2000, h ...

during the MCC Bicentenary match in 1987. After his playing career, he became a coach, taking over the West Indies team between 2000 and 2003, and then team manager of the

West Indies Under-19 cricket team The West Indies under-19 cricket team represents the countries of Cricket West Indies in international under-19 cricket. The West Indies is one of only five teams to participate in every edition of the Under-19 Cricket World Cup, along with Engl ...

in 2005. However, he was approached by

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in late December 2005 with an offer of taking over the Kenyan national team after interim coach Mudassar Nazar, and the appointment was made official in January 2006. Harper said it "was great to be back" coaching players "at a relatively high level."

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Harper, Roger 1963 births Living people Sportspeople from Georgetown, Guyana Guyanese cricketers Demerara cricketers Northamptonshire cricketers West Indies One Day International cricketers West Indies Test cricketers West Indian cricket captains Guyanese cricket coaches Guyana cricketers Afro-Guyanese people Coaches of the Kenya national cricket team Cricketers at the 1987 Cricket World Cup Cricketers at the 1992 Cricket World Cup Cricketers at the 1996 Cricket World Cup Caribbean Premier League coaches Coaches of the United States national cricket team M Parkinson's World XI cricketers Scarborough Festival President's XI cricketers D. B. Close's XI cricketers