Alan Igglesden

Alan Paul Igglesden (born 8 October 1964)[1] is a former English Test cricketer. He played three Test Matches and four One Day Internationals (ODIs) for the England cricket team between 1989 and 1994 as a fast bowler. He played most of his first-class cricket career for Kent County Cricket Club.

Alan Igglesden

Personal information
Full name	Alan Paul Igglesden
Born	8 October 1964 Farnborough, London
Batting	Right-handed
Bowling	Right-arm fast-medium
International information
National side	England (1989–1993/94)
Test debut (cap 540)	24 August 1989 v Australia
Last Test	17 March 1994 v West Indies
ODI debut (cap 123)	16 February 1994 v West Indies
Last ODI	5 March 1994 v West Indies
Domestic team information
Years	Team
1987–1998	Kent
1987/88–1988/89	Western Province
1992/93	Boland
1999	Berkshire
Career statistics
Competition Tests ODIs FC LA Matches 3 4 154 151 Runs scored 6 20 876 185 Batting average 3.00 10.00 8.34 10.27 100s/50s 0/0 0/0 0/0 0/0 Top score 3* 18 41 26* Balls bowled 555 168 26,579 7,225 Wickets 6 2 503 190 Bowling average 54.83 61.00 26.81 24.60 5 wickets in innings 0 0 23 2 10 wickets in match 0 0 4 0 Best bowling 2/91 2/12 7/28 5/13 Catches/stumpings 1/– 1/– 40/– 29/–
Source: CricInfo, 4 May 2015

Cricket career

Igglesden was born in Farnborough, London in 1964.[2] He first played for Kent County Cricket Club's Second XI in 1983 before making his first-class cricket debut of the county in July 1986 against Somerset at Maidstone. He went on to play for Kent until August 1998, making 276 appearances for the Kent First XI and taking 409 first-class wickets. He took 50 first-class wickets in a season for Kent four times and recorded 17 five wicket hauls and two ten wicket matches for the county.[3][4] He played in South Africa for Western Province and Boland and finished his county career by appearing for Berkshire in the Minor Counties Championship in 1999.[4]

Igglesden made his international debut for England in the final Test of the 1989 Ashes series.[4] His elevation to Test cricketer owed much to a catalogue of injuries to other players and came in the wake of one of the rebel tours to South Africa which denied England the opportunity to pick players who had been involved with the tour. England manager, Micky Stewart, described Igglesden as being England's "seventeenth-choice" pace bowler.[1] Igglesden took three wickets on his debut and was the England A team's leading bowler on their tour of Zimbabwe in 1989/90 but was then not picked again by England until 1993.[5]

In 1993, Igglesden was picked for the first Test, again against Australia, and it appeared he may have had a few games to prove his worth. In the end, he did not play in a single Test that summer, courtesy of a groin injury and then a side strain.[5][6] He did appear twice in Tests and in four ODIs against the West Indies in 1993/94, but took only three Test wickets and was not picked again.[4]

Later life

Igglesden suffered a seizure in 1999 and, after a routine MRI scan, doctors discovered a non-malignant but inoperable brain tumour.[7][8] He was treated with radiotherapy and drugs and has seen a significant reduction in the size of the tumour.[7][8]

After his retirement from cricket, he became a sports centre manager, at Woodhouse Grove School. He has also taught at Sutton Valence School in Kent.[7][8][9] Igglesden is now part of a charity supporting brain tumour sufferers.[7]

References

1. Bateman, Colin (1993). If The Cap Fits. Tony Williams Publications. p. 98. ISBN 1-869833-21-X.
2. Alan Igglesden, CricInfo. Retrieved 20 November 2017.
3. Bowling records, in Kent County Cricket Club Annual 2017, pp.197–205. Canterbury: Kent County Cricket Club.
4. Alan Igglesden, CricketArchive. Retrieved 20 November 2017.
5. Moore G (1993) Cricket: Bad luck dogs Kent's big man: Alan Igglesden could again be robbed of his Test chance by injury. Glenn Moore reports, The Independent, 26 June 1993. Retrieved 20 November 2017.
6. "The elegance of youth". ESPN Cricinfo. Retrieved 11 October 2017.
7. Petropoulos T (2004) 'Being alive is all that counts', BBC News, 26 December 2004. Retrieved 20 November 2017.
8. Armstrong R (2008) The greatest Test of all: Alan Igglesden on surviving a brain tumour, The Independent, 31 March 2008. Retrieved 20 November 2017.
9. Where are they now? Kent – 1995 AXA Sunday League winners, The Cricket Paper, 2 June 2015. Retrieved 20 November 2017.

External links

Alan Igglesden at ESPNcricinfo