The Tebbit Test: The Memoirs of a Cricketing Fanatic

Don't listen to the author or the publisher. This is what the experts say: Icki Iqbal has written a book which appeals to several audiences - This is a thoroughly good read, full of hard fact and wise opinions about both cricket and life. Lord Tebbit It has a lovely, engaging honesty, and I do like the way you oscillate between your own life story and the events of the cricket world - - What you write (in the last chapter) is powerful - It's very nicely written. Gentle, honest and in places very funny. Stephen Chalke, Author of 'Runs in the Memory', 'At the Heart of English Cricket' et al One of the funniest books I have read in many a year, I was genuinely impressed by the quality of writing. If someone had said to me that a Pakistani Ramchandar Guha was waiting in the wings to establish his independent credentials, I would have scoffed at him. Yet here is a tale, written tongue in cheek, which gives the reader no warning of what awaits him, in the final chapter. The final statements are as tragic as those of William Shakespeare writing on Hamlet, Prince of Denmark. Dr Khadim Hussain Baloch, Author of 'Encyclopedia of Pakistan Cricket' et al. I have just finished reading The Tebbit Test. Let me say how entertaining I found it. I couldn't put it down...I think that you have something here - it's really rather good, although, like you, I am a cricket nut and therefore I may be somewhat biased towards the book's contents. Having said that, I was fascinated by your childhood experiences as well as your portrayal of working life in the sixties and early seventies. David Holland, Captain of Bacon & Woodrow IMC's most successful cricket team This is what the publisher has to say: This is a self-deprecatory tale of Icki Iqbal who grew up in Pakistan in the fifties. As a right handed batsman and left arm spin bowler he set his sights on being selected for the tour to England in 1962, as a seventeen year-old. His role models were Peter May (batsman) and Tony Lock (bowler). His hero was Imtiaz Ahmed. Alas, he had to take a reality check when he found that he wasn't good enough to make his House Second XI at school. He came to England in 1964 six days before Harold Wilson came to power. He played some cricket and watched a lot. He ended up being a city actuary. The Tebbit Test is his story. Why should it interest you? Well, as you'd see from the expert comments shown on the back page, it is a good read. To a cricket fan, it is the odyssey of a die hard cricket fanatic of limited skills. Enjoy his personal travails on the pitch and off the field over the past fifty-odd years. To the sociologist it chronicles life in Pakistan in the post colonial fifties and the experience of a British Asian from the mid-sixties onwards and how the host community and he have dealt with each other. Is the Tebbit Test relevant?

About the Author :
Icki Iqbal spent his working life as an actuary. He has published a number of professional papers and written articles in the financial press. Now retired, he is a full time writer. The leitmotif of his writing is humour, irreverence and a rakish look at life. He is a member of Helen White's Creative Writing Group. His first book, The Herd Instinct of Mules, set in the banking industry, was overtaken by events. With the credit crunch, real life was imitating and exaggerating art. The Tebbit Test is the first book to be published and distils a lifetime's love affair with cricket. The next book, Educating Majid is currently seeking a publisher. It is the rites of passage of a bright but naive actuary dealing with insurance fraud and boardroom skullduggery. The third novel, provisionally titled Apocalypse? Wow!, a celestial Mean Machine or Dirty Dozen is at planning stage.