Born in Eshowe, Zululand,[2] Deane was a right-handed middle-order batsman whose domestic cricket in South Africa was for Natal from 1919–20 to 1922–23 and then for Transvaal from 1923–24 to 1929–30.

The 1924 South Africans lost the Test series to England by three matches to nil, with two draws, with the weakness of the bowling singled out by Wisden Cricketers' Almanack in its review of the tour as a prime cause for failure.

[10] South African domestic cricket in 1924–25 was dominated by the tour of a team of English cricketers sponsored by the tycoon S. B. Joel; the team included players with Test experience, but though four matches were arranged against a Test-standard South African side, they were granted only first-class status.

With this domestic record of captaincy success, Deane was picked as captain for the South Africa side for the 1927–28 English tour of South Africa, ahead of Herbie Taylor who had led the 1924 tour of England, but whose form had reportedly suffered in the big matches from the pressures of the captaincy.

[12][13] The turnaround in the series started with third Test, which was drawn with the South Africans finally posting a respectable total.

[23][24] With the series now lost, Deane came into better form himself, making his only century of the tour, an unbeaten 133, in the game against Hampshire, scoring his runs in 140 minutes.

[26] Wisden wrote: "The batting of both men reached a very high standard and, coming as it did in such circumstances, was easily the best in point of class and skill shown by the South Africans in the whole series of Tests.

His replacement as captain was Buster Nupen and his 11 wickets for 150 runs in the match won the game narrowly for South Africa.

[32] Wisden wrote of him in its obituary column that "there can be no doubt that his inspiration and careful team-building were chiefly responsible for the improvement in South African cricket of recent years.