Sahara offers contracts for boxers, wrestlers

Much like their cricket cousins, 17 grapplers and 13 pugilists will receive graded contracts after Sahara India Pariwar pledged to support wrestling and boxing in the country.

Apart from offering them a four-year contract which will be reviewed every year, Sahara also adopted the famous Bhiwani Boxing Club in Haryana and the Guru Hanuman Akhara in the capital with an aim to upgrade the facilities at both centres.

"This is our emotional attachment to these two disciplines. We just wanted to ensure that these wrestlers and boxers can prepare for both the 2010 Commonwealth Games and the 2012 London Olympics without bothering about their basic necessities," Sahara chairman Subroto Roy said in Delhi on Monday.

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

"We cannot deny the fact that we were tempted to adopt these two disciplines after both fetched India medals in the Beijing Olympics. It's 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 said.

Efforts would be made to create icons out of the identified athletes, he added.