Malik Family Lead Crawley Magik Into Milestone Debut Season

Crawley Magik has unveiled their squad for their debut season in the Optasia Squash Super League, marking a historic milestone as the first team to host fixtures from a public leisure centre – K2 Crawley Squash Club.

Led by the Malik Family, Crawley Magik brings together a mix of household names, rising under-25 stars, and homegrown local talent. This unique family-led squad, which features five Malik siblings and is bolstered by world-class talents such as World No.8 Tinne Gilis, World No.12 Salma Hany and World No.26 Juan Vargas, reflects the club’s deep community roots.

Speaking ahead of the new season, Crawley Magik Team Manager, Camron Malik said:

“Crawley Magik is based at K2 Crawley Squash Club.

“We operate out of a public leisure centre and our team predominantly consists of one family
Curtis, Perry, Torrie, Bailey & Heston Malik – also known as Team Malik. We also have a couple of younger players that we coach & will make up part of our squad – Réka Kemecsei & Jake Sim-Baskar.

“We truly hope that playing the highest level of squash out of a public leisure centre, K2 Crawley, will really help inspire the next generation of juniors and club players. More importantly this will let the passing public see that the high levels of competitive squash that can be achieved and that they would not normally get to see and witness our amazing sort in action.

“Many thought we as a family would be an exciting opposition to some of the other teams especially as a few years ago Crawley Squash Club won the previous PSL format, beating Pontefract in the final by one game. Since then we have got stronger and this seems an exciting and natural way for Team Malik Squash to grow and compete against the very best clubs and players.

“We are extremely excited to make our debut in the league but unfortunately we still don’t have a sponsor, so if anyone out there can help support our cause please do get in touch.”

Squad: The Breakdown

With five Malik family members, along with two further players trained at the K2 Crawley Squash Club, the Crawley Magik squad is one whose collective identity is shaped by community roots.

The eldest Malik sibling, Curtis, will lead the men’s line-up and will start the Squash Super League campaign in strong form after recently reaching a career-high rank of World No.22 in the PSA Rankings. Curtis’ recent standout results on the PSA Squash Tour include wins over the likes of former World No.1 Mohamed ElShorbagy at the U.S. Open and World No.10 Youssef Soliman at the Silicon Valley Open.

Joining him in the men’s line-up will be Colombia’s World No.26 Juan Vargas and Hungarian No.1 Balazs Farkas, both of whom will help form a formidable senior trio for the Crawley Magik.

World No.8 and European Individual Champion Tinne Gilis headlines the women’s line-up alongside World No.12 Salma Hany, World No.42 Torrie Malik and World No.54 Marie Stephan.

Belgian No.1 Gilis has been a consistent presence in the latter stages of flagship PSA Squash Tour events over the last few years, reaching the semi-finals of events such as the Qatar Classic and El Gouna International and previously achieving a career-high rank of World No.5.

Egypt’s Hany and England’s Malik, meanwhile, are both exciting, attack-minded players who are well suited to the high-octane, sudden-death, best-of-three format.

Supporting these players will be fellow Malik siblings, Perry, Bailey and Heston, all of whom are on the rise and will be crowd favourites at the K2 Crawley Squash Club.

English rising stars Jake Sim-Baskar, 19, and Réka Kemecsei, 17, are also trained by the Malik family and will be looking to step into the spotlight as two of the team’s U25s prospects. Completing the squad will be Egypt’s World No.98 Rana Ismail, who transfers to Crawley Magik after competing for Bexley Ballers last campaign.

The Crawley Magik start their campaign against the Chichester Centurions on Friday, 19th December. Every second of action will be available to watch LIVE and for FREE on SQUASHTV.

For more information on the Leamington Royals, please visit their website. You can also follow them on X and Facebook.

Crawley Magik Squad:

Men’s Pros: