Parks played 46 Tests between 1954 and 1968, although his county career continued for another eight years, into his mid-40s. He later worked for the brewer Whitbread, and as marketing manager for Sussex, where he also served two terms as club president.

Sussex announced that he had died at hospital in Worthing on Tuesday morning, having suffered a fall at his home at the weekend.

Parks was born into a cricketing family. His father, Jim Snr, and his uncle Horace both played more than 400 times for Sussex, while his son, Bobby, kept wicket for Hampshire and Kent.

Having come through as a batter who also bowled legspin, Parks went on to become a mainstay behind the stumps, helping to effect more than 1000 dismissals in first-class cricket. He debuted as an 18-year-old in 1949, playing 739 first-class games and 132 in List A, eventually finishing his career with Somerset.

Parks made his Test debut against Pakistan at Old Trafford as a specialist batter, but might not have played again had it not been for the decision of Robin Marlar, Sussex's captain, to instigate his conversion to keeping wicket after the retirement Rupert Webb. He returned to England's Test XI on the 1959-60 tour of the West Indies and scored a century, cementing his place for much of the next decade.

In all, he scored 1962 runs in Tests, with two centuries, as well as completing 103 catches and 11 stumpings.