[1] After briefly playing for the Somerset Second XI, he joined Hampshire in 1976, where he would spend the next four years as an understudy to regular wicket-keeper Bob Stephenson.
[3] He featured regularly for Hampshire in the closing weeks of the 1980 season as Stephenson stepped down from his wicket-keeping duties,[4] making six further appearances in the County Championship,[3] in addition to playing five List A one-day matches in the 1980 John Player League.
[6] He toured Zimbabwe with an English Counties XI in the spring of 1985, making two first-class and five one-day appearances against the Zimbabwean national team.
[7][9] Parks had further success with Hampshire, winning the 1988 Benson & Hedges Cup,[2] and claimed his 600th first-class dismissal in the 1989 County Championship when he caught Northamptonshire's Geoff Cook off the bowling of Paul-Jan Bakker.
[9] In addition to playing six first-class matches in 1992, Parks also made six one-day appearances,[5] the last of which came in the final of the 1992 Benson & Hedges Cup against Kent at Lord's,[1] which Hampshire won by 41 runs.
[12] In one-day cricket, he made 244 appearances, taking 260 catches and making 43 stumpings; with the bat, he scored 959 runs at an average of 16.53, but never passed fifty.
[17] Parks was the general manager of the Southern Vipers women's team until April 2018, when he retired and handed the role to Charlotte Edwards.