Jimmy Cameron

Who is Jimmy Cameron?

Francis James "Jimmy" Cameron, born at Kingston, Jamaica on June 22, 1923 and died at Kingston, Jamaica on June 10, 1994, was a cricketer who played in five Tests for the West Indian cricket team in India in 1948-49.

Cameron was a right-handed middle- or lower-order batsman and a right-arm off-break bowler. His first-class cricket career is one of the odder ones: he played only 21 first-class matches, and 14 of those were on the West Indies tour to India, Pakistan and Ceylon in 1948-49, and another four were on the Canadian tour to England in 1954.

A student in Canada at the time, Cameron was picked for the West Indies tour of India after only two first-class matches, both for Jamaica, and his Test debut was his fifth first-class match. In a series dominated by high scoring batsmen and often-wayward West Indian fast bowling, Cameron batted low in the order and was used mainly as a stock bowler. In the second match, at Bombay, he scored an undefeated 75 as the West Indies piled up a second successive score of more than 600; in all five Tests, he took just three wickets.

At the end of the tour, Cameron disappeared from first-class cricket for five years, reappearing in four matches played by the Canadian touring team in England in 1954. He then made only one further first-class appearance, for Jamaica in 1959-60. Outside first-class cricket, he played much League cricket in England.