The claim from Sir Craig came as officials from WADA admitted the recent doping raids in Austria and Germany had provided them with lessons to learn as the current anti-doping system had failed to catch the athletes involved.

Five athletes were initially arrested by Austrian police during last month's Nordic Ski World Championships in Seefeld as part of a targeted operation into a suspected worldwide drugs network.

German team doctor Mark Schmidt was also detained in a raid in Erfurt and is thought to be central to an alleged blood doping ring.

Austrian cross-country skier Johannes Dürr, whose revelations about blood doping in a recent ARD documentary sparked the raids, was later arrested in Innsbruck before being released.

None of the skiers arrested in Seefeld - Austria's Dominik Baldauf and Max Hauke, seemingly caught in the middle of a blood transfusion in a video leaked last month, Kazakhstan's Alexei Poltoranin and the Estonian duo of Karel Tammjarv and Andreas Veerpalu - nor those who have subsequently admitted cheating - had previously been caught for blood doping.

The majority of them have also admitted to doping at major events including the Olympic Games and World Championships.

It has led to concerns over the robustness of the athlete biological passport system, the primary mechanism used to try and uncover blood doping.

WADA claimed in a statement released following the raid that it had provided information and other assistance to the authorities in the course of their operation but it is likely the athletes involved would not have been caught without the intervention of criminal authorities.

This was not disputed by Sir Craig or Günter Younger, the head of WADA's intelligence and investigations department (I&I).

Both have previously highlighted the need for the I&I, which now has eight investigators, to be given more resources to enhance the number of investigations it is able to actively pursue.

Sir Craig said, however, that more well-established National Olympic Committees and National Anti-Doping Agencies (NADOs) setting up their own investigations department would be one way to improve the current system.

"If the rest of the world wants us to do this better, they are going to have to give us more than eight per cent per annum to pay for it," he told insidethegames.

"It would be better if NADOs and National Olympic Committees developed their own investigating capacity and then we can cooperate with them.

"It is better if there is a whole army of investigators and a network of top NADOs would be a good thing."

Younger claimed the fact German and Austrian police were the ones to reveal the presence of a suspected doping ring was not a poor reflection on the current system.

The former policeman also said the extent of the alleged worldwide drugs network, including how many sports it could affect, would become clearer once interviews of Schmidt were completed by the authorities.

"This is how it should work - there should be this cooperation between sport and law enforcement," said Younger.

WADA director general Olivier Niggli added that "whoever does this kind of operation is a win for the system".

"Why was there no detection in the system - there were a number of explanations, which I am not going to go in to now," he said.

"But it is interesting and I am sure we will learn from these results."