Sailing: Umpires due to travel on board the two Americas Cup yachts were yesterday ordered off after fears they could be in danger from powerful radio and microwave signals.

Both Team New Zealand and Italy's Prada Challenge had spent most of this week negotiating a deal to get on-board umpire observers and only reached agreement on Thursday night.

Both welcomed the deal at a press conference yesterday, although Italian skipper Francesco de Angelis said his side feared they would be at a disadvantage given that English was not their first language.

But it was a throwaway line by Prada tactician Torben Grael that suddenly raised new concerns.

Asked if they had the space for an extra person, Grael laughed and said yes, saying he could sit in the "electric chair".

When the remark seemed to be an insult toward the umpires Grael explained that the position would have to be among the antennae on the stern which carries radio, television and computer telemetry continuously.

In a statement last night race organisers said that after a conference with participants, race officials, the host broadcaster and communications experts International Jury Chairman and Chief Umpire Bryan Willis announced there will be no on-board umpires as the emissions were a threat.

"We can't put the observers at risk and thus we will revert to wing boats for the observers," Willis said.

Cycling: The 2001 Tour de France will start on France's north coast with a prologue in Dunkirk, it was announced yesterday.

A deal confirming the starting point was signed between the president of the Dunkirk Urban Community and the Tour's director general Jean-Marie Leblanc.

The 8.2 km long prologue will be held on July 7th, 2001 at the coastal town associated by most people outside France with the evacuation of the British army during the Second World War in the face of advancing German forces.

The following day the first stage will take the peloton from Saint-Omer along the so-called Cote d'Opale (Opal Coast) to Boulogne-sur-mer - a 198 km (124 miles) ride, while the second stage will depart from Calais and arrive in the Belgian city of Antwerp - a distance of about 200 km (125 miles).

Delebarre claimed the operation would cost the local authorities around 10-11 million francs (£1.2m-£1.3m).

He said: "We want to better promote the Opal Coast which consists of 300 communes around big agglomerations such as Calais, Boulogne, Dunkirk and Saint Omer - that's around 800,000 inhabitants.

"It's the region around the Channel Tunnel but also one of the biggest port complexes and a development site in northern Europe."

The rest of the 2001 race - the 88th running - will be unveiled on October 26th in Paris.

The 2000 running will begin at the Futuroscope theme park near Poitiers before what has become the traditional finish on the Champs Elysees in Paris.

Cricket: Police had to intervene after Australian cricket player Shane Warne snatched a bag from a young fan and refused to give it back, Television New Zealand (TVNZ) reported yesterday.

The boy had taken a photograph of Warne, the Australian vice captain, at Thursday's abandoned one-day international against New Zealand in Wellington. Warne apparently was not going to return the bag unless the film in the camera was handed over to him.

"Mr Warne was upset, I think, at the fact he had been photographed while smoking (a cigarette)," Inspector Greg Gilpin of Wellington police said.

Two police constables were called over by the father of a friend of the boy to help retrieve the bag from the cricketer, TVNZ reported.

"(Warne) was certainly agitated and upset by what had occurred," Gilpin said. "He was obviously intent on getting the camera and probably over-reacted to the situation."

After a police sergeant became involved, Warne returned the bag.

Leg spinner Warne was paid $118,000 last year by a pharmaceutical company to quit his 40-a-day habit and promote its antismoking gum and patches.

Cricket: England's Craig White fully justified the term all-rounder when he played the principal role in his side's victory over Zimbabwe in their one-day international in Bulawayo yesterday.

But his magnificent performance was almost not enough as England just scraped home with one wicket to spare to snatch a 20 lead in the four-match series. White's career-best five wickets for only 21 runs with his brisk medium pace destroyed the Zimbabwe batsmen, who were all out 131 in 47.3 overs, fewer than three an over.