At his peak, in the early 1930s, Vincent Valentine was one of the fastest bowlers in the West Indies, delivering side-on with a slightly slingy action. Coming from a family of cricketers - mostly amateur - Valentine established himself as a promising allrounder in his youth, and made his first-class debut for his native Jamaica when Lord Tennyson's team visited the island in the 1931-32 season. In a game remembered for an unbroken stand of 487 between George Headley (344 not out) and Oscar Da Costa (261 not out), Valentine held his own, picking up 1 for 71 and 3 for 57 in an innings win for Jamaica.

The West Indies tour of England in 1933 opened the doors for higher honours for him, and he played a lion's share of his first-class cricket then. Based on available records, Valentine played 19 games on that tour, between May and September. That included two Tests, the only ones of his 24-match first-class career. His performance in the Tests wasn't much to write home about, though. He scored 35 runs in four innings, and picked up one wicket. He continued to play in Jamaica after his first-class career ended in 1938, after a game against a Combined Oxford and Cambridge Universities team, and he turned to umpiring. Unverified accounts say that at various points in his life, he worked as a teacher (including in his prime as a cricketer), a clerk, an accountant and in marketing.