While playing for Fish Hoek High School Harris was spotted by Western Province coach
Duncan Fletcher who brought him into the provincial underage system. At Western Province Harris played alongside then-future
England player
Jonathan Trott. Harris made his first-class cricket debut for Western Province B in 1998 in an UCB Bowl match against Eastern Province B in
Port Elizabeth. It took over two years for Harris to play another first-class match. Due to intense competition for spinning roles, with
Paul Adams and
Claude Henderson being preferred over Harris, he only played two matches for Western Province, in March 2001 and February 2002. After the 2001–02 cricket season, Harris transferred to
Northerns. With the restructuring of South African domestic cricket in 2004 Harris played for the
Titans in the
SuperSport Series while continuing to play occasionally for Northerns in the
South African Airways Provincial Challenges. He immediately made his debut for the Bears in a
Twenty20 Cup match against
Worcestershire. He formed a
spin bowling partnership with
off-spinner
Alex Loudon. After representing South Africa internationally he became ineligible to play as a
Kolpak ruling player for Warwickshire. He played his first match in the third Test of the
2006–07 South Africa-India series against
India at Newlands Cricket Ground. His career was off to an eventful start, taking four
wickets in the first innings including the wicket of
Sachin Tendulkar and is widely considered the best spinner for the Proteas since re-admission. Harris began to show some more promise on the tour to
Pakistan in October and November 2007 taking 12 wickets at an
average of 20.66 including best figures of 5–73 in the first Test in
Karachi. in January 2009 In August 2007 Harris, returning to the country of his birth, led South Africa A to a win over Zimbabwe A, taking nine wickets in a man-of-the-match performance. In March 2008 Harris was selected in the South African
One Day International team that toured
Bangladesh. Harris played three ODI matches against
Bangladesh in
Chittagong,
Mirpur and
Dhaka. During South Africa's
2008 tour of England Harris's bowling style was derided by English commentator and former player
Geoffrey Boycott as being "buffet" bowling. In December 2009, in response to this and other criticism of the lack of spin in his bowling, he joked that "most people will say I’ve only got the straight one". Playing against
Australia during their
2009 tour to South Africa Harris was key to ensuring a South African fightback in the third Test, taking nine wickets in the Protea's innings-and-twenty-run win. For his efforts, he was named man of the match. In the second Test against India in February 2010 Harris bowled 12 wides, the most wides in a Test innings, bowling over the wicket on team instructions.
Honours Harris was named in the
Wisden Cricketers' Almanack's 40 best players of 2007. He was named South African Newcomer of the Year in the 2007 Mutual & Federal SA Cricket Awards. ==References==