‘‘This to my mind is a 10 or 11 on the Lance Armstrong scale. This is much worse that what Sepp Blatter has been doing.’’

The words were said by Daley Thompson and referred to Russia’s dubious drug dependency — a molten hot potato dished up to former British Olympic teammate Seb Coe in his new role as boss of the IAAF.

With friends like Thompson, Coe probably does need to worry about Vladimir Putin and his comrades.

Watching Russia become the Volkswagen of world athletics has felt as predictable as the outcome of the upcoming Test series between a formidable Australian unit and a West Indies outfit largely unknown beyond the boundary rope of the Antigua Recreation Ground.

In the wake of the World Anti-Doping Agency’s exposure of Russian cheating and corruption, hard-luck stories were not hard to find, least of all in Australia.

Inevitably, much of the focus was on race walker Jared Tallent who has devoted almost as much energy to outing banned Russian drug cheat Sergey Kirdyapkin, who beat him to gold in London, as he did in completing the 50 kilometre course on that hot August afternoon in 2012.

Tallent’s quest is such that he is recording the number of days (1185 and counting) between him crossing the line outside Buckingham Palace and claiming his crown.

However, there are plenty more, like long jumper Bronwyn Thompson who finished fourth in Athens 2004 behind, wait for it, Tatyana Lebedeva (Russia), Irina Simagina (Russia) and Tatyana Kotova (Russia). At least Tallent got his piece of silver — Thompson, who could yet be crowned Olympic champion, was even denied a place on the podium.

Like Australia, Coe’s home nation has come out firing, responding in much the same fashion that both countries did when jointly overlooked in votes for the 2018 and 2022 soccer World Cups that FIFA boss Blatter has subsequently admitted were pre-ordained.

If outraged indignation were an Olympic sport, Great Britain could produce a finish akin to the 2004 women’s long jump.

The Telegraph’s chief sports writer Paul Hayward suggested global governing bodies like FIFA and the IAAF now exist to chase money rather than enforce order. ‘‘The incompatibility of those aims has corrupted them to their souls.’’

Concluding that London 2012 and all its predecessors would ever-more require an asterisk in the record books, Hayward added: ‘‘To make FIFA look slightly less bad is quite an achievement.’’

The Guardian’s Owen Gibson said there too many sports where the fight against doping is woefully underpowered and underfunded.

‘‘There are huge swathes of the sporting landscape – from football to tennis to rugby – where the surface has barely been scratched in coming to terms with the problem,’’ Gibson wrote.

To suggest that the matter is limited to Russia is as naive as to suggest it is limited to athletics, or indeed that dodgy emission components are limited to Volkswagens.

WADA has already said that Kenya also has a major problem, questions have long been asked about sprinting powerhouse Jamaica while a finger was pointing towards America long before Carl Lewis became the golden boy of the 1984 Games.

As for other sports, Gibson makes a valid point.

Armstrong ensured the UCI have already been down this road while numerous team sports appear to be in dire need of a mirror, not least the self-anointed world game.

When Dinamo Zagreb’s Arijan Ademi failed a drug test after his side defeated Arsenal in the Champions League in September, the English side sought to have the result overturned.

European governing body UEFA said only if ‘‘more than two players’’ test positive can a team be sanctioned.

So that would require at least three players to test positive.

And how many get tested each game?

Two.