Team Sky boss Sir Dave Brailsford has called on UCI president Brian Cookson to show strong leadership skills to enable cycling to win the battle against the drugs cheats, and says the governing body needs to “step up their game.”

In an interview at the team’s training camp in Mallorca, Brailsford was asked by BBC sport’s Matt Slater for his views on Astana.

Last month, the Kazakh team was granted a UCI WorldTour licence for the coming season despite two of its riders, plus three from its development squad, failing doping controls in 2014.

Slater noted that its squad includes Tour de France champion Vincenzo Nibali, and asked what message that sent out about the sport.

Brailsford declined to single out “any individual or any team,” but in his subsequent comments it was clear he was referring to UCI president Cookson, who promised to crack down on dopers ahead of his election in 2013.

Replacing Pat McQuaid, Cookson assumed the reins of the sport at a time when it was still reeling from the fallout of the US Postal scandal that resulted in Lance Armstrong being banned for life and stripped of his seven Tour de France victories.

“If you are in charge of governance, and you want to create a credible sport, then you should have the rules and the leadership skills to be able to deliver a credible sport,” said Brailsford.

“That’s what we want. We’re trying to play our own leadership role as much as we can as a team, we’re part of Velon and we want to move that forward as part of a collective group of teams,” he went on.

“But ultimately it’s the UCI governing the sport, and everybody involved wants a credible sport. They need to step up their game and make sure that’s what they deliver.

“Great leaders, they don't find excuses why they can't do something. Sometimes you've got to break down some barriers and get over some obstacles and find ways of doing things to get things to a place where they haven’t been before.

“That’s what we want from the UCI. The people who lead a sport, or lead change in industry or in any walk of life, they have to be strong characters and they have to step up and be counted, and deliver what they said they were going to do.”

Under Cookson, who led British Cycling as Brailsford helped turn Great Britain into a world powerhouse in cycling, the UCI created the Cycling Independent Reform Commission.

The commission has been hearing evidence regarding doping in recent months and is due to report early this year.

Last week, the UCI announced new anti-doping rules to fall into line with the provisions of the 2015 World Anti-Doping Code.

Cookson said last month that Astana is “on probation,” and the UCI has made it clear that any repeat offences will result in the team’s licence being reviewed once again.

Brailsford said that Sky supported the governing body in its efforts to clean up cycling, but called on it to show greater leadership.

“Let’s sort our sport out, we’ll support them [the UCI], I think some of the changes they’ve made just recently have been very welcome, but we’ve got more to do, let’s face it.

“We’re looking to them to lead the way,” he added.