After sponsoring cricket & hockey, India corporate giant - Sahara India Pariwar has pledged to support wrestling and boxing.

At a press conference in New Delhi on Monday, Sahara announced that 17 wrestlers and 13 boxers will receive four-year contracts, which would be reviewed every year.

The corporate giant has also decided to adopt the famous Bhiwani Boxing Club in Haryana and the Guru Hanuman Akhara in Delhi where they would work towards upgrading the facilities at both these centers.

"We have adopted these two disciplines as we are emotionally attached to them. We just want to ensure that these wrestlers and boxers can prepare for both the 2010 Commonwealth Games and the 2012 London Olympics without getting too hassled about their basic requirements," Sahara chief Subroto Roy said at the function.

Sahara will also be the title sponsor for the Senior National Boxing Championship for the next four years, he added.

When asked whether the organisation has chosen these two particular sporting disciplines because Vijender Kumar (Boxing) and Sushil Kumar (Wrestling) won the Olympic medals last year, Roy admitted, "We cannot deny the fact that we were tempted to adopt these two disciplines after both fetched India medals in the Beijing Olympics.

"But it is not only the medal winners alone, other boxers and wrestlers also did a good job there. We were thoroughly convinced of the tremendous potential of both the sports," Roy added.

Beneficiaries of the sponsorship:

Boxing: Vijender Singh, Akhil Kumar, Jitender Kumar, AL Lakra, Dinesh Kumar, Amandeep Singh, Nanao Singh, Narjit Singh, Chhote Lal Yadav, Rakesh Kalaskar, Dilbagh Singh, Balwinder Beniwal and Santosh Kumar Virothu.

Wrestling: Sushil Kumar, Yogeshwar Dutt, Palwinder Singh Cheema, Rajeev Tomar, Rahul Aware, Vinod Kumar, Hardeep Singh, Amit Kumar, Ramesh Kumar, Mausam Khatri, Joginder Kumar, Hari Kishan, Ravinder Singh, Vikram Sanghwan, Rajbir Chhikara, Manoj Kumar and Dharmender Dalal.