Richard Parker has just landed one of the toughest jobs in Sussex sport.

But the 43-year-old Brummie is relishing the chance to put some bite back into struggling Brighton Bears.

Parker joined the club this week on a consultancy basis and will work three days a week trying to raise the profile of the club throughout the community.

It is a wide ranging role and among his aims are to increase attendances at home matches, bring more sponsorship to the club, improve liaison with local schools and businesses and introduce more people to a sport he has been involved with for over 20 years in some form or another.

Parker did a similar job for Bears' southern conference rivals Birming-ham Bullets for 17 months before leaving at the start of the season when the club re-organised following the return of Mike Finger as head coach.

He also has coaching experience, having been Finger's No. 2 for three years with Brum. But Parker's new remit strictly concerns matters off the court and he believes he can attract more people to basketball.

"I see that Brighton football club can only get 6,000 or so people into Withdean for home games. That means there are a lot of people out there who are not experiencing live sport of any kind in the city and it's up to me to try and introduce them to basket-ball," said Parker.

"The sport has a lot going for it. We already get a lot of youngsters to the game, but by working on a schools programme hopefully we can introduce a lot more and persuade them to bring their parents along at the same time."

Bears' owner Romek Kriwald admitted this week that support for the team had fallen this season which is hardly a surprise after an appalling run which has seen them lose 13 of their last 14 games.

"It's only a slight dip, but it's something we can't really afford and we have addressed it by bringing in Richard," said Kriwald.

"He's had over 20 years basketball experience and did very well in a similar role with Birmingham. We're quite fortunate to get him and he will do a job which has not really been happening this season."

Parker's appointment is good news as it will ease the burden on Kriwald who has been running the club on a day to day basis virtually single-handedly since the start of the season.

In September there were trumpets and fanfares when Kriwald concluded six months of negotiations by announcing that Tessa Sanderson had joined him as a co-director.

But appearances on match nights by the former Olympic gold medallist have been rarer than Bears' victories this season and the appointment of Parker must raise some doubts about Sanderson's future with the club.

Kriwald insists she is still on board. "Tessa's role was always going to be a secondary one, I don't expect anyone to put more hours into the club than me," he added.

"It's important for me that I have a partner who shares my keenness for the sport. Tessa is still in my plans for the club."

Bears' co-captain Michael Brown is still another fortnight away from a return to the court, according to coach Mark Dunning.

Brown has missed the last four games after tearing his thigh muscle in training. He had hoped to return for tonight's southern confer-ence trip to Thames Valley Tigers, but Dunning reckons it could be February before he is back.

"I can't see Michael coming back for at least another 2-3 weeks," admitted Dunning.

"He tore his thigh really badly and even if he came back early I don't see the benefit for him or us if he just hobbled about on the court."