Mainly associated with Sussex, he is recorded in 305 matches from 1835 to 1861 which are generally designated first-class, totalling 5,115 runs at an average of 10.54 with a highest score of 99, holding 206 catches and taking 1,144 wickets with a best analysis of 9/34.

Although primarily a Sussex player, Dean played for numerous other teams but especially for the United All-England Eleven (UEE), from 1853 to 1858, of which he was the co-founder with his friend John Wisden.

[1] In Scores & Biographies, Arthur Haygarth describes Dean as "very stout for a cricketer" because he weighed 12 stone though his height was only 5 foot 7 inches.

Haygarth, a contemporary, recounts that Dean began the UEE in 1852 "in conjunction with Wisden" and that his likeness, by John Corbett Anderson (see graphic) has been published by Fred Lillywhite.

[3] In his Phoenix History, Roy Webber says that interest in the AEE "dropped to reasonable proportions" after the initial sensation and offshoots began to appear, the first being Dean and Wisden's UEE in 1852 with "other sides to follow".