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
• British Cycling have confirmed that an independent review, originally announced following allegations of discriminatory behaviour, will be extended to investigate whether a bicycle dealership illicitly sold British Cycling team kit and bikes. According to The Guardian, Shane Sutton, who was suspended this week over discrimination allegations, lived rent-free...
The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) published its second annual Anti-Doping Rule Violations (ADRVs) Report on Wednesday evening, revealing a number of remarkable statistics. Not all of these, however, were immediately noticeable. There are a number of headline findings, but the data also throws up some more interesting statistics that need a...
• A professional video gaming team from Hong Kong has been banned by a major gaming portal for match-fixing. In a statement E-Frag, which hosts the online shooting game Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO), said an investigation into the team, InchK1ng, had confirmed that match-fixing took place. The investigation, in...
• Croatian state authorities have reportedly charged the former Chairman of Dinamo Zagreb with tax evasion, corruption and bribery. Zdravko Mamic, and his brother Zoran Mamic. are accused of embezzling millions ‘at least HRK117.8 million ’ and avoiding taxes of ‘at least HRK12.2 million ’. The Mamic...
Match-fixing rarely makes the headlines, as those sportsmen involved are generally not high profile enough to rate media interest. The greatest danger lies, as it always has, in lower level, less well publicised and funded sports, where earning a living is a continuous struggle. This environment provides a constant...
A United States Appeals Court has restored a four-game suspension on National Football League (NFL) player Tom Brady. In a decision published yesterday, the court reversed a September 2015 judgment of a US District Court which had overturned Brady’s original suspension, imposed by the NFL’s commissioner Roger Goodell in...
• The The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) has named the two independent international experts who will ‘ help the Russian Anti-Doping Agency (RUSADA) overhaul its anti-doping program and rebuild confidence in the anti-doping system in Russia’. The Sports Integrity Initiative first reported in March that WADA would station two independent experts at...
Officials of two rugby clubs in the Berks, Bucks and Oxon Premier League, a division of the RFU’s South West Division, as well as a match referee, have accepted charges of providing ‘false or misleading information’ about a match scheduled to have taken place in February this year. The...
• The Swiss government has enacted new legislation designed to crack down on corruption in sport. Dubbeed ‘Lex FIFA’ (‘FIFA Laws’), the laws will come into force in July and will reportedly allow prosecutors to investigate suspected bribes without having to await a criminal complaint. ‘In future, bribes paid...
Before 7 March 2016, the day that Maria Sharapova announced that she had tested positive for meldonium, few outside the athletics world had heard of this drug. As it turned out, few within this world had either, or had least heard that it was on the World Anti-Doping Agency’s...
• Tennis umpire Denis Pitner has been suspended from officiating on the sport for 10 years after being found guilty of breaching the Code of Conduct for Officials, the International Tennis Federation (ITF) has said in a statement. Pitner’s certification was suspended for 12 months in August last year...
The International Cricket Council (ICC) today announced that it has suspended Hong Kong all-rounder Irfan Ahmed for two years and six months after he admitted breaching the ICC Anti-Corruption Code (the ‘Code’). Mr Ahmed was charged with offences under the Code and provisionally suspended by the ICC on 4...
A Board Member of New Zealand Greyhound Racing has been banned by the Racing Integrity Unit for 11 years after being convicted of doing a corrupt or improper act. David Scott pleaded guilty to the charges, having previously entered a not guilty plea, and resigned as a Board Member...
On Friday the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) announced that it had revoked the accreditation of the Anti-Doping Centre Moscow, Russia (the Moscow Laboratory) due to non-compliance with the International Standard for Laboratories (ISL). The allegations surrounding the laboratory’s conduct and practice have been around for a while – here...
12 May 2016 – The Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service (MPTS) issue an advisory note stating that the hearing against Dr Bonar (and his co-defendant Dr Trefzer) will resume on Friday 13 May, but the decision on the facts of the case are only expected to be handed down...
