Harper's exploits with bat and ball soon captured the attention of the regional selectors. He captained the West Indies Youth team to England in 1982 and he made his debut for the West Indies against India in Calcutta during the 1983 tour. He recorded his best ever Test figures in the Old Trafford 4th Test of the 1984 tour, taking 6-57 to help the West Indies defeat England by an innings and 64 runs.

Harper's outstanding performance during the entire 1984 tour led to his signing by Northamptonshire the following year and he remained with the county until 1988. His best ever season was in 1986 during which he took 62 wickets at 26.93 apiece and also recorded his highest ever first class score, an innings of 234 against Gloucestershire which included twelve sixes and twenty-five fours.

His Test career which seemed so promising at the start, to the degree that he was even identified as a future West Indies captain, was however stymied by a knee injury he suffered during the 1989 domestic series which ruled him out of selection for India's tour that year. Attempting perhaps to rush his recovery, he was selected for the tour of England the following year, but almost completely lost his bowling action and was never again quite the force he had been before.

In all, Harper played twenty five Tests for the West Indies, taking 46 wickets at 28.06 runs apiece and scoring 535 runs at an average of 18.44 runs per innings. In One Day Internationals, he represented the West Indies in 89 matches, scoring 705 runs at an average of 16.78 runs.

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If Harper's Test career proved in the end to be less fulfilling than anticipated, the same cannot be said about his performances in One Day Internationals. An electrifying fielder in any position, Harper's mercurial all-round talents made him an almost automatic pick for the West Indies. He played in his first World Cup in India and Pakistan in '86 and a decade later was still enough of a force to be a huge part of the West Indies 1996 campaign which ended with a semi-final loss to Australia.

Having retired from first class cricket, Harper is however still very much involved with the game. He is now occupied in transferring his immense cricketing knowledge to the potential future stars of West Indies cricket and was recently appointed coach to the West Indies A'team for their current tour of Bangladesh and India.