Isabelle Westbury

Isabelle “Izzy” Westbury (born 8 March 1990) is a sports writer, broadcaster, lawyer and former cricketer. As a cricketer, she played as a right-arm off break bowler, playing for Somerset and Middlesex, as well as being part of the Western Storm squad in 2016. She captained Middlesex for two seasons, in 2015 and 2016. Westbury also appeared in one One Day International.

She was President of the Oxford Union in 2011–12. Westbury retired from playing cricket in 2017 and went on to work as a print and broadcast journalist for The Daily Telegraph and the BBC. She is also a criminal lawyer.

Early life
Born in Hammersmith, London, Westbury experienced a nomadic childhood, living in Mongolia, Malaysia, Easter Island and Syria before arriving in the Netherlands. She attended The British School in the Netherlands from 2001 to 2006. It was in the Netherlands that she first started playing cricket, after being prevented from playing club football alongside boys beyond the age of 13, at the "very traditional club" near her house.

Westbury studied for an undergraduate degree in Physiology at Hertford College, Oxford, graduating in 2013. In addition to her cricket career, she also played hockey for Oxford, achieving her Blue by playing in the Varsity Hockey Match against Cambridge in March 2010. In 2011, she was elected as President of the Oxford Union, having earlier served as the society's secretary, and was described as "the most engaging president that the Oxford Union has had in years".

The Netherlands
At the age of thirteen, Westbury began to play boys cricket for The Hague Cricket Club, and at the age of fourteen she was picked for the national side, making her first appearance at the 2004 European Under-21 Championships.

In 2005, aged 15, Westbury represented the senior Netherlands side for the first time during the 2005 European Championship in Wales.

England
Westbury started at Millfield School in Street, Somerset in 2006 on a sports scholarship. She joined Somerset for the 2007 County Championship.

Remaining with Somerset in 2008, she claimed her first wicket for the county during their first match of the season, having Surrey opener Ebony-Jewel Rainford-Brent caught. She appeared in the Super Fours—a competition in which the England selectors place the 48 leading players into four teams—for the first time in 2008, representing the Diamonds in both the 50-over and 20-over forms of the game.

In January 2010, Westbury was named as part of the England Academy squad for the High Performance Camp in Bangalore, India. Westbury joined Middlesex in 2013, and was made captain the following year. In 2016, she signed for the Western Storm in the inaugural Kia Super League. Westbury retired from playing cricket the following season.

Legal career
Westbury qualified as a lawyer in 2018, and serves as a Legal Officer in the Royal Air Force. She has a specialism in criminal law.