Sahara India to sponsor Indian volleyball

New Delhi, April 16 (IANS) India's corporate major Sahara India, chief sponsors of the Indian cricket team and owners of Indian Premier League (IPL) franchise Pune Warriors, Monday announced that they will support Indian volleyball for the next four years.

Sahara, in a statement said, it has pledged to promote and financially support the men's national teams (senior and junior) for a span of four years.

"We see lot of scope to develop the game of volleyball and therefore we have come forward to lend our support to the national teams on the eve of Olympics 2012 so that these talented athletes are motivated to perform better to bring more laurels to the nation," said Subrata Roy, chairman of the Sahara India Pariwar.

B. Sivanthi Adityan, president of the Volleyball Federation of India, said it was a privilege and honour to be associated with a sports-loving and promoting group like Sahara.

"We are confident that this tie-up would encourage our boys to perform better besides giving the federation an opportunity to build a stronger Indian team for the upcoming qualifiers and other world championships. We sincerely appreciate this gesture," he said.

Besides sponsoring the national cricket and hockey teams, Sahara India also supports Indian boxing, wrestling, archery, shooting, athletics, football and tennis.