James Whitehead (South African cricketer)

James George Whitehead (June 1882 – 23 January 1940) was a South African cricketer who played first-class cricket for Warwickshire in a single match in 1902 and then for Western Province and Griqualand West from 1904–05 to 1920–21.[1] He was born at Cape Town and died in the southern suburb of Mowbray. He was known, in English cricket at least, as "George Whitehead".[2]

Whitehead was a protege of Walter Richards, the old Warwickshire cricketer who coached in South Africa, and returned with Richards with a view to joining the Warwickshire staff when qualified through residence.[2] He was described as "a left-handed medium-paced bowler [who] makes the ball get up very quickly from the pitch" and a left-handed "promising" batsman, and had played for the Cape Town Cricket Club.[2] In the event, as he was not qualified for County Championship games, he played only one first-class match for Warwickshire, the match against London County in 1902, scored just one run in his only innings and failed to take a wicket.[3]

Whitehead returned to South Africa and from the 1904–05 season he played fairly regularly for Western Province as an opening bowler and lower-order batsman through to 1910–11, then for a couple of seasons with Griqualand West, returning to Western Province after the First World War.[1] His bowling was often effective, and against Natal in 1908 he took seven second-innings wickets for 58 runs and 10 for 83 in the match, in which he bowled unchanged throughout.[4] In a career of only 30 first-class matches, he took five or more wickets in an innings seven times.[1]