Isabelle Westbury is a freelance journalist who writes for the SII. Her focus is on politics and sport, especially cricket. She has written for a number of publications including The Guardian, The Times, The Independent, The Daily Mail and The Sun, and broadcasts on cricket for the BBC. She has an undergraduate degree from Oxford University, where she was President of the Oxford Union, as well as a postgraduate degree in law. She is also Middlesex CCC women’s cricket captain.
All posts by Isabelle Westbury
Jose Baxter, a professional footballer for the League One side Sheffield United, has been found guilty of failing a drugs test despite maintaining that he engaged in no wrongdoing involving any banned substance knowingly. Baxter was found to have traces of a banned substance in his sample following a...
Gerard Elias QC’s role as Chairman of the Cricket Discipline Commission (CDC) for the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) is one that has seen him oversee issues that have varied from players’ spitting on the pitch through to racism allegations and corruption of the sport. Appointed as the...
A committee set up by the Supreme Court of India in January to determine the ‘quantum of punishment’ to be imposed on two cricket administrators and their respective franchises in the Indian Premier League (IPL) has today announced its verdict. The ‘Lodha Committee’, chaired by the former Chief Justice...
The 16 suspects accused of fixing a top tier handball match between French sides Montpellier and Cesson in May 2012 have been found guilty for their involvement in or involvement in illegal betting according to Le Monde. Amongst those convicted are the French handball star, Nikola Karabatic, and his...
Davor Šuker and UEFA have dismissed newspaper reports that Šuker, President of the Croatian Football Federation (HNS), is being investigated over his relationship to convicted match-fixer, Ante Šapina. ‘I have never been questioned by any public or private authority in relation to my alleged relationship with Mr. Ante Šapina and Mr....
The Brazilian Football Confederation (CBF) has called for a ‘rigorous investigation’ into alleged irregularities in a football match between the Brazilian side Corinthians and Argentina’s Boca Juniors on 15th May 2013. The match, which ended in a 1-1 draw, was the second leg of the quarter-final of the Copa...
Of a total of 101 samples tested by the Mexican National Commission for Physical Education and Sport, 73 of those samples, amounting to 72% of the total tested, provided Adverse Analytical Findings (AAFs) as reported in the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) Testing Figures Report 2013. Convert these totals to...
Evangelos Marinakis, the owner and Chairman of national champions Olympiacos (pictured), has been banned from football and released on bail – under strict conditions – during an investigation into alleged corruption and match-fixing in Greek football. Reuters reported that, according to judicial sources, Marinakis had been ordered to report...
The former Pakistan cricket captain, Salman Butt, has signed a written statement specifically confessing to spot-fixing. In the statement, which was published by the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB), Butt admits that he was ‘guilty of breaching the International Cricket Council (ICC) Anti-Corruption Code in the manner found by the Anti-Corruption...
India’s Enforcement Directorate (ED), a specialised financial investigation agency under the ambit of the Department of Revenue within India’s Ministry of Finance, have confirmed to the Sports Integrity Initiative that on Monday they filed a chargesheet against seven alleged bookmakers accused of being involved in accepting bets for various...
The match-fixing trial of 16 suspects accused of fixing a top tier handball match between Montpellier and Cesson in May 2012 started in Montpellier on Monday. One of the 16 suspects includes the French double Olympic handball gold-medalist Nikola Karabatic, who has also won three World Championships with France....
South Korean striker Kang Soo-il has decided not to contest a 15-match suspension issued by South Korea’s K-League for failing a doping test, reports the Associated Press. An 11 June statement from the K-League revealed that Kang, who plays for Jeju United, had tested positive for ‘methyltestosterone, a type of steroid medication’, after...
The President of the Liga de Fútbol Profesional (LFP), Javier Tebas, has said that the LFP will be investigating comments allegedly made by Deportivo de La Coruña defender Alberto Lopo prior to the recent La Liga match between Barcelona and Deportivo, as well as the final match of Spain’s...
On Thursday last week Professional Footballers Australia (PFA) released a statement saying that the performance of its national team players, who represent the Australian national team the ‘Socceroos’, would not suffer as a result of an ongoing pay dispute with Football Federation Australia (FFA). The statement was released following...
State Police in Catanzaro, Italy, have performed 17 interim arrests issued by the District Attorney of Catanzaro as part of the ‘Dirty Soccer’ match-fixing inquiry led by anti-mafia prosecutors in the southern Italian town. Most of the 17 arrested were among the more than 50 people who were detained...
