Alan Igglesden is a former English

English people

The English are a nation and ethnic group native to England, who speak English. The English identity is of early mediaeval origin, when they were known in Old English as the Anglecynn. England is now a country of the United Kingdom, and the majority of English people in England are British Citizens...

 cricket

Cricket

Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of 11 players on an oval-shaped field, at the centre of which is a rectangular 22-yard long pitch. One team bats, trying to score as many runs as possible while the other team bowls and fields, trying to dismiss the batsmen and thus limit the...

er. He played three Tests

Test cricket

Test cricket is the longest form of the sport of cricket. Test matches are played between national representative teams with "Test status", as determined by the International Cricket Council , with four innings played between two teams of 11 players over a period of up to a maximum five days...

 and four ODIs for England, but his playing career was ruined by injuries. His first-class cricket

First-class cricket

First-class cricket is a class of cricket that consists of matches of three or more days' scheduled duration, that are between two sides of eleven players and are officially adjudged first-class by virtue of the standard of the competing teams...

 career included spells with Kent

Kent County Cricket Club

Kent County Cricket Club is one of the 18 first class county county cricket clubs which make up the English and Welsh national cricket structure, representing the county of Kent...

, plus Boland and Western Province in South Africa

South Africa

The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...

.

Life and career

Igglesden's elevation to a becoming a Test cricketer owed much to a catalogue of injuries to other potential players, and came in the wake of one of the rebel tours

South African rebel tours

The South African rebel tours were a series of seven cricket tours staged between 1982 and 1990. They were known as the rebel tours because South Africa was throughout this period banned from international cricket due to the apartheid regime...

 to South Africa

South Africa

The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...

. England's then cricket manager, Micky Stewart

Micky Stewart

Michael James Stewart OBE is an English former cricketer, coach and administrator. He was awarded the OBE in 1998 for services to cricket....

, described Igglesden's promotion as being England's seventeenth-choice pace bowler, and he had the misfortune of initially appearing in the sixth and final Test of the already decided 1989 Ashes series

1989 Ashes series

The 1989 Ashes series was that year's edition of the long-standing and storied cricket rivalry between England and Australia. Starting on 8 June 1989, England and Australia played six Tests, with the Ashes previously having been held by England since the 1985 Ashes series.The final result was a 4-0...

. Igglesden made a credible debut in a losing cause, with this Test ending in a draw.

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. He did appear twice in the Caribbean

Caribbean

The Caribbean is a crescent-shaped group of islands more than 2,000 miles long separating the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea, to the west and south, from the Atlantic Ocean, to the east and north...

 the following winter, as England took on the West Indies, but took only three wickets and was not picked again. His Test bowling return was six wickets at an average of 54.83. Igglesden suffered an epileptic fit

Epilepsy

Epilepsy is a common chronic neurological disorder characterized by seizures. These seizures are transient signs and/or symptoms of abnormal, excessive or hypersynchronous neuronal activity in the brain.About 50 million people worldwide have epilepsy, and nearly two out of every three new cases...

 when playing Minor counties cricket for Berkshire

Berkshire County Cricket Club

Berkshire County Cricket Club is one of the county clubs which make up the Minor Counties in the English domestic cricket structure, representing the historic county of Berkshire and playing in the Minor Counties Championship and MCCA Knockout Trophy....

 in 1999, and his medics discovered a non-cancerous brain tumour that was successfully treated by medication.

After his retirement from cricket, he became a sports centre manager, at Woodhouse Grove School

Woodhouse Grove School

Woodhouse Grove School is an independent, coeducational, day and boarding public school and Sixth Form college in Apperley Bridge, Bradford, West Yorkshire, England for children aged between 11 and 18...

. He was also active at Sutton Valence School

Sutton Valence School

Sutton Valence School is an English independent school near Maidstone in southeast England. It has about 520 pupils. It is a co-educational school with a boarding option . The three boarding houses are Westminster, St Margaret's and Sutton and, for those in the first and second form, Beresford...

. Igglesden is now part of a charity

Charitable organization

A charitable organization is a type of non-profit organization . It differs from other types of NPOs in that it centers on philanthropic goals A charitable organization is a type of non-profit organization (NPO). It differs from other types of NPOs in that it centers on philanthropic goals A...

supporting brain tumour sufferers.