Bangladesh become 129th member of CISM

Hyderabad, Oct 14 (UNI) Bangladesh has become 129th member of CISM after its admission in to the Military Sports Governing Body which made CISM the second biggest sporting body after International Olympic Committee.

Although CISM was created on February 18, 1948, at a meeting in Nice with five founding nations, Belgium, Denmark, France, Luxembourg and the Netherlands, it was confined to mostly Europe.

This desire among the military to meet in sports arenas instead of battlegrounds was nothing new in 1948. Indeed, just after the First World War, the first Interallied Games were organised upon the initiative of General Pershing and his entourage with 18 nations representing five continents.

In 1919, 1500 athletes competed in 24 different sports in front of a large audience at Joinville in the Paris suburbs.

Following the Second World War, the Allied Forces Sports Council was revived. The second Interallied Games was held at Berlin in 1946.

Only athletics competition was organised. The desire to meet among soldiers was stronger than the need to produce striking sports achievements at all costs. On May 1946, the Allied Forces Sports Council was set up, namely by Colonel Debrus and Major Mollet, who were among the founding fathers of CISM two years later.

Unfortunately, because of political discord, the Allied Forces Sports Council was extinguished in 1947. However, the ideal was rekindled the following year with the founding of CISM and the rise of a global vision.

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