Harris was born at Salisbury in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) where his father Mark was a member of the British South Africa Police until 1980.

[4] While playing for Fish Hoek High School Harris was spotted by Western Province coach Duncan Fletcher who brought him into the provincial underage system.

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.

[3] Following the retirement from international cricket of fellow spinner Nicky Boje in late 2006, he was given his first call-up for South Africa after Claude Henderson made himself unavailable.

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.

[12][13] 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.