Born on 13th January 1981 in Brighton, Sussex, is former England Test, ODI and T20I cricketer Caroline Mary Ghislaine Atkins.
Atkins played in the England Junior Women’s Trials in 1993 at twelve years of age and made her debut for Sussex when she was fifteen. It was another five years before she received the call for national duties, and surprisingly in this modern era, Caroline’s debut for England was in a Test match.
Opening the batting against the Australians in June 2001, Atkins faced a fired up Cathryn Fitzpatrick and stubbornly resisted the onslaught for 147 minutes, making just 10 runs but giving her all for 140 deliveries. She batted longer than any other English batter as the side was humbled for 103 runs. It was a tough initiation but Caroline proved that she could play at the top level.
Her ODI debut cam later that same season against that same Australian attack. It was not a good summer for England batters but despite the hard beginning, Atkins then began to blossom for England and collected some batting records along the way.
In India in 2002, Atkins and Arran Brindle set a new record for the highest first wicket partnership in women’s Tests of 200 runs. (Since broken). In 2008 against South Africa at Lords a then record 268 run partnership with Sarah Taylor. Atkins was creating records in both Test and ODI formats.
Her Test career over nine matches saw 357 runs with a high of 90 and three half centuries. In 58 ODIs 1291 runs at 30.02 with six half centuries and a top score of 145 from that record partnership.