Yesterday, it was revealed that Jamaican athletic's drug testing procedures would be audited.

The news follows revelations by former Jamaican Anti-Doping Director Renee Anne Shirley alleged that its athletes were not tested outside of competition for five of the seven months before last year's Olympics.

With athletes such as Asafa Powell having been found to have tested for banned substances, doubts surrounding the credibility of Jamaican athletics and its success have set in.

Last night, Off The Ball spoke to David Epstein who is the author of the Sports Gene about the issue.

"There was one out-of-competition test carried out by Jamaican anti-doping authorities in the five months leading to the Olympics. And out-of-competition testing is by the far the most important kind," explained Epstein.

Renee Anne Shirley made the allegations back in August in Sports Illustrated and Epstein worked with her on that article.

Jamaica's current anti-doping chief Herb Elliott accused Shirley of having an axe to grind and even went as far as to call her "demented" but Epstein refutes this suggestion.

"She backed up everything with documentation and she was basically frustrated that she was trying to draw attention to that issue of no out-of-competition testing and was getting no funding to do anything about it," said Epstein.

Renee Anne Shirley

"Some people are trying to portray her as having an axe to grind. I don't really see it that way because we came to her. She didn't come to us."

Joe Molloy asked Epstein if this is incompetence or corruption on Jamaica's part and Epstein indicated that it was more likely to be the former.

"I think it's more the former because there wasn't a formal anti-doping body in Jamaica until recent years and then even the first board was dissolved over conflicts of interest. Some of it is just a country where athletic achievement is ahead of the infrastructure."

Listen to the full interview below or download the podcast on iTunes: