Cricket has been played in Cameroon since in the late 1990s after the Commonwealth Students and Youth Development Organisation (formerly the Cameroon Commonwealth students and Youth Association) began efforts to introduce the game to Cameroon as part of a wider lobbying effort to become a recognised Commonwealth nation. These efforts were led by Victor Agbor Nso.

The Cameroon Cricket Outreach Programme was later set up in 2004 in order to use cricket to recognise other youth development goals and to support the efforts of Nso, who is the current President of Cameroon Cricket Federation. Nso a developed a love of the game through watching and listening to cricket from the BBC.

Cameroon established its governing body FECACRICKET in 2005 and have been playing formal cricket since 2007, with the game growing significantly since. There are 22 clubs across men’s and women’s cricket and several youth-oriented programmes designed to feed these clubs and increase participation across the country. T20 is the prevailing format of club cricket.

Although cricket originated in the capital city Yaoundé, it has since spread across five of the country’s ten regions, including Douala (Littoral Region), Bamenda (North West), Buea (South West) and in the West. Significant efforts are going to increase cricket playing infrastructure across the country, where football grounds have hitherto been adapted for cricket.

Although cricket is relatively new in Cameroon, the French speaking country has several initiatives to grow grassroots cricket, with an emphasis on increasing participation at a junior level. Notably, through the Cricket at School programme, qualified coaches train teachers on the basics of cricket and help them to organise soft ball cricket tournaments in schools and distribute cricket equipment to improve accessibility.

They have benefitted from the support of the Lords Taverners and have an ongoing partnership with Cricket Without Borders. In order to encourage more women and girls to play cricket, registration into the federation and local cricket clubs is free. Cameroon is expected to play their first WT20I in 2021.