Igglesden was born in Farnborough, London in 1964. 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. 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.

Igglesden made his international debut for England in the final Test of the 1989 Ashes series. 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. 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.

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 Tests and in four ODIs against the West Indies in 1993/94, but took only three Test wickets and was not picked again.^[4]

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]