Are cricketers born, or made? Are wicketkeepers? Are coaches? Hampshire’s keeping coach, Bobby Parks, is a member of one of the sport’s most illustrious families so is in an unusually good position to answer those questions.

“It was a dynasty!” Bobby laughs. “Cricket was almost like going into the family business. When I was young my dad [Sussex keeper batsman Jim Parks] was playing for England so it was just part of my life, and it was something I enjoyed doing. And I’m always the first to admit that it did open a huge number of doors; into Sussex for example, where I watched so much cricket and came through the youth system. People sometimes say there’s a load of pressure on you, but when you’re young you just shrug it off because it’s part of your life.

“It affects you more later on, when you get old enough to want to make your own name. It certainly affected me when I made my First Class debut.” Bobby had come up through the Sussex system behind an excellent keeper called Tim Head who effectively blocked his progress into the Second Team. Instead he played Second XI cricket for Somerset, where his father was finishing his career, and then had the opportunity to break away from the family firm and trial for Hampshire.

“One of the reasons I came was because there was no Parks background here at all. It was a complete clean break and I’m so glad I did it. The totally ironic coincidence was that I made my First Class debut against Sussex. My great pal Alan Willows was making his debut for Sussex and he got me out! There were a few comments from Sussex supporters and a lot of pressure from the press. Their tag line was always a challenge for me: ‘Bobby, son of Jim’ – for about the first five years of my career. My nickname ended up being Son Of, because it was so much part of my name!

“Since I was playing there is so much in the game that has moved on; it’s a much more professional game than it was twenty years ago. The biggest frustration for me as a player was even though I was pretty conscientious I found there wasn’t the support there, particularly for wicketkeepers. When I finished playing I felt that I still had more to offer; I could have been a better player than I was. In fact there were times after my professional career when I felt I was playing better, because playing representative cricket for the MCC, and for Paul Getty’s XI, you had opportunities to talk to top international cricketers and time to reflect on what you were doing.”

So how did Bobby learn about wicketkeeping when he was a youngster starting out? “Just by watching. My father was a top class batter but started keeping when he was 28 and was a self-made wicketkeeper so he felt he didn’t have the skills to teach me. So I did it by watching other keepers and practising in the back yard throwing a ball against a wall hundreds and hundreds of times trying to perfect a way of keeping. Certainly when I got through to pro cricket I used to hunt out the other pros and I got very friendly with Alan Knott who in a way became my mentor, but of course I only got to talk to him three or four times a year after a game.

“Batters and bowlers had far more support and that’s really why I’ve ended up doing what I do now. I started to work with the junior keepers here at Hampshire, doing clinics taking on the top couple of keepers from each year group, and with the junior academy. Then I came in one day and I asked Paul Terry if I could spend an hour with Nic Pothas to see how he worked. So he introduced me to Nic and we hit it off pretty well and he liked my style. I actually carried on working with him on a freelance basis, and after a year Tom Burrows came to me to ask if I’d do some work with him, which I was thrilled by, and also Michael Brown because he wanted to progress his game.

“At that point the club realised I had every Hampshire keeper on my books, from Nic down to a ten year old, so I was asked to become keeping coach. Eighteen months ago I was asked to take on the Emerging Players’ Programme and I love every minute of that too. This business of finding complete sportsmen – that’s where the game is going. We all know the best kids are the ones who are multi-talented; the best coordination and the quickest movers – and keeping is the one area that needs all those skills.”

Bobby works with the district coaches

The latest addition to Bobby’s role is to spearhead a programme to standardise the development of young keepers across the County, using a £1,400 grant from the Ben Williams Trust (see http://www.rosebowlplc.com/news/keeping-the-dream-alive).  The first phase delivered nine hours of coaching to all the keepers in the various Hampshire age group squads and was the first time many of them had received formal instruction in their specialist skill. The second phase, which has just begun, cascades wicketkeeping development skills into district cricket through their head coaches.

“What the funding from the Ben Williams Trust has given us is the opportunity to roll out to the Districts,” Bobby told me. “I have sixteen district coaches coming in to do a three hour session; I’m not necessarily teaching them to teach – I’m teaching them to keep wicket, so that’ll be fun! Then in December I work with the kids; they love the kudos of coming here to The Rose Bowl. I also impress on the coaches the need to give the keepers time – which is difficult when you have sixteen kids in a session – and to be open minded when the kids are very young about who will make the best keepers; to try different ones out.”

Bobby believes the standardisation of approach is what is important. “What we’ve been trying to do is work with the County and District age group keepers and their coaches to give them the same information as we give the Academy and the pros. A few years ago someone said they’d seen a young keeper and known he’d been working with me because he had a certain style about him. I thought it was great, but also that it shouldn’t be as unique as that, there should be other coaches out there who give the same skills. It made me realise the deficiencies in the system.”

At the end of our interview Bobby told me that although there had been a Parks playing County Cricket for most of the twentieth century he was the end of the line for dynasty as he has no sons and his nephews aren’t interested in the game. But although there may not be a keeper with the Parks name, there are sure to be a fair number who at least in part owe their careers to Bobby’s coaching. So maybe the family firm will continue after all, albeit under new management and with a different name.

Photo credit: Jamie McLean
 

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