Portly and bespectacled, and comically inept with the gloves, Tariq Iqbal's claim to eternal fame was the catch that dismissed Brian Lara at Pune in March 1996, as Kenya produced a scarcely credible victory over West Indies. The Guardian noted that Iqbal was "wearing a blue headband and a double chin", and added that he had dropped so many deliveries and conceded so many byes that his own fielders had resorted to laughter rather than fury. However, he got the one that mattered right. Lara, in a curiously frenzied assault, launched into a back-foot smear and Iqbal somehow clung onto a thick edge "The ball sank somewhere into his nether regions," reported the Daily Telegraph, "and the gloves clutched desperately, trying to locate it. Then, glory be, it reappeared in his hands and was raised aloft in triumph and relief." Apparently he had been Kenya's second-choice keeper leading into the tournament, though it was his batting that let him down ...Andrew Miller March 2007
