Eric St Eval Atkinson, who died after a long illness on May 29, 1998, aged 70, played eight Tests for West Indies in the late 1950s. He made his debut as a 30-year-old opening bowler at Bridgetown in 1957-58, alongside his older and better-known brother Denis, playing his last Test. The Atkinsons were the third pair of brothers to play together for West Indies, after the Grants and the Stollmeyers; there have been none since. In his second game, at Sabina Park a month later, Eric took five for 42, a performance that was somewhat overshadowed by Garry Sobers's 365 not out. A tearaway bowler in his youth, Atkinson was not very successful when he first played for Barbados: three wickets in his first nine matches. But he had settled down to bowl fast-medium swing by the time he got into the Test team; he was said to have used reverse swing long before anyone had a name for it. Atkinson was chosen to tour the subcontinent a year later and, in his last Test, helped set up victory at Lahore with figures of 12-8-15-3, as Pakistan were bowled out for 104.
Wisden Cricketers' Almanack