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
• During the weekly Prime Minister’s Questions in the House of Commons on Wednesday, UK Prime Minister David Cameron responded to questions on whether the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) needed further support to tackle doping in an Olympic year, and what further action could be taken in the light of recent international doping scandals. Cameron said that more...
• The CEO of the Anti-Doping Agency of Kenya (ADAK), Japhter Ragut, has reportedly told local media that a proposed Anti-Doping bill will be passed in parliament next Tuesday. On Wednesday the President of Kenya, Uhuru Kenyatta, issued a statement saying that the new legislation will be completed “by...
The Essendon supplements case continues to make headlines following allegations that Stephen Dank, the former Sport Scientist for the Australian Football League (AFL) club Essendon, admitted to a journalist that he had trafficked prohibited substance CJC-1295 to another former employer, AFL club the Gold Coast Suns. Earlier today the...
• South Africa’s Premier Soccer League (PSL) has confirmed in a press release that it has ‘filed charges against eight football officials and football players relating to contravention of the NSL Rule 53.1, 53.2 and 53.2.10’. The eight officials and players will appear before the PSL...
Just last week professional cyclist David Millar, who was banned for two years in 2004 after admitting to doping, condemned the manner in which the fight against doping was being administered. At the Tackling Doping in Sport conference, Millar said that athletes were being put off coming forward with information. He criticised in...
Former athletics coach Dr George Skafidas has received a lifetime ban a lifetime ban from all sport following nine Anti-Doping Rule Violations and British sprinter Bernice Wilson has received a back-dated 10-month ban after being charged with a second anti-doping rule violation. Skafidas was was convicted after admitting to all nine...
Ignorance of the law is no excuse. Since the evolution of justice, this principle has endured; a person may not escape liability for the violation of a law simply for not knowing it existed. This long-held value is enshrined in the International Tennis Federation’s (ITF) Anti-Doping Programme (Article 2.2.1),...
Since Sharapova’s admission last week that she tested positive for the recently banned drug meldonium, professional tennis players past and present have offered their opinions on her provisional suspension. Here’s what they’ve had to say: John McEnroe Three-time Wimbledon champion, 13th March 2016 Athletes are always looking for an edge ‘If a...
South Korea swimming corruption: The President of the Korea Swimming Federation (KSF), South Korea’s national governing body for the sport, will submit his resignation this month according to local media reports. Yonhap, a local news agency, has reported that Lee Ki-heung, told executives at a recent meeting that he...
The former Chief Executive of the Zimbabwe Football Association (ZIFA), Henrietta Rushwaya, has been named in local media reports as the latest administrator to have been involved in match-fixing in Zimbabwean football. According to the The Herald, Philip Chiyangwa, the ZIFA president, told a media conference in Harare on...
In a letter dated 8 March 2016, the Confédération Africaine de Football (CAF) was informed by the Zimbabwe Football Association of the provisional suspension of a member of its Executive Committee, Mr. Edzai Kasinauyo. The decision, based on information available to the Association and were subjected to its Executive...
More than 70% of the sports contested at the inaugural European Games in 2015 had athletes competing in which meldonium was detected, a new study has found. On Tuesday the British Journal of Sports Medicine (BMSJ) published a study revealing that 13 medallists at the games self-declared taking meldonium,...
• In the latest development in the US Department of Justice probe into corruption in football’s world governing body, a FIFA official has reportedly pleaded guilty to money laundering and wire fraud. According to reports, Colombian national Miguel Trujillo, a FIFA match agent and permanent US resident, admitted to...
The Men’s 100m at the 1988 Summer Olympics in Seoul, South Korea has frequently been dubbed ‘the dirtiest race in history’. The world-record winning time set by Ben Johnson was nullified two days after the race after a post-race drug test indicated steroid use. Suspicion of wider drug-use in the field...
Former South African international cricketer Alviro Petersen has revealed that he reported a match-fixing ‘matter’ to appropriate authorities three days after being made aware of a ‘fixing scandal’. Petersen’s comments, which were made on his Twitter account, follow media reports that he is ‘under investigation in the match-fixing scandal...
