International cricket in 2008–09

The 2008–09 international cricket season was between September 2008 and March 2009. The season saw the security concerns for cricket in Pakistan reach a pinnacle. The ICC Champions Trophy, scheduled to be held in Pakistan in September 2008, was postponed to 2009 after five of the participating nations refused to send their teams for the event. In November 2008, a Pakistani militant group launched terror attacks in Mumbai. This led to India cancelling their tour of Pakistan originally scheduled for January and February 2009. Sri Lanka agreed to tour Pakistan in place of India. However, the tour was jeopardised by a terror attack in Lahore where gunmen fired at a bus carrying the Sri Lankan team, injuring six team members. The Champions Trophy was later relocated to South Africa. No international cricket were played in Pakistan for more than five years. This period of isolation ended when Zimbabwe toured Pakistan in May 2015. After successfully hosting a few T20Is against World-XI, the Sri Lanka cricket team and the West Indians from 2017 to 2018, a few matches of the Pakistan Super League from 2017 to 2019, the whole season in 2020 as well as hosting complete tours against Sri Lankan and Bangladeshi cricket teams respectively during the 2019–20 season, built a good reputation of Pakistan. Hence, by the end of 2019, the Pakistan Cricket Board, announced that they would no longer play any of their future home matches at a neutral venue, indicating that International Cricket has returned to the country on full-time basis.

ICC Intercontinental Cup

 * Win – 14 points
 * Draw if more than 8 hours of play lost – 3 points (otherwise 0 points)
 * First Innings leader – 6 points (independent of final result)
 * Abandoned without a ball played – 10 points.

Note: For matches in previous seasons, see the main article

England in India

 * 2 further ODIs were scheduled for Guwahati (29 November) and Delhi (2 December) but were cancelled for security reasons following the 2008 Mumbai Terrorist Attacks. The 1st Test was moved from Ahmedabad to Chennai and the 2nd Test from Mumbai to Mohali. After initially flying home, England flew out to Abu Dhabi on 4 December for a training camp, before then returning to India for the test series.

ICC Americas Division 1 Championship
The ICC Americas Division 1 Championship took place Fort Lauderdale in Florida from 25 November. Six nations took part: hosts USA, holders Bermuda, Canada, Cayman Islands, Argentina and debutants Suriname. United States won the tournament.

Sri Lanka in Bangladesh

 * The first test included a rest day on 29 December due to the Bangladeshi general elections.

Sri Lanka in Pakistan

 * As a result of the firing in Lahore where several Sri Lankan players were injured, the 2nd Test was abandoned and Sri Lanka immediately returned home.

England in West Indies

 * The 2nd Test was abandoned due to an unfit outfield. Therefore, an extra test was arranged to be played at the Antigua Recreation Ground, starting 2 days after the abandonment.

Women's Tri-Series in Bangladesh
advanced to the Final

Test

 * 🇮🇳 Sachin Tendulkar reached 12,000 runs in Test on 17 October (vs Australia) 1st All Time
 * 🇮🇳 Sourav Ganguly reached 7,000 runs in Test on 18 October (vs Australia) 33rd All Time
 * 🇮🇳 V. V. S. Laxman played his 100th Test match on 6 November (vs Australia) 46th All Time
 * 🇮🇳 Harbhajan Singh reached 300 wickets in Test on 7 November (vs Australia) 22nd All Time
 * 🇮🇳 Sachin Tendulkar reached 100 catches in Test on 10 November (vs Australia) 27th All Time
 * 🇦🇺 Brett Lee reached 300 wickets in Test on 22 November (vs New Zealand) 23rd All Time
 * 🇦🇺 Matthew Hayden played his 100th Test match on 28 November (vs New Zealand) 47th All Time
 * 🇦🇺 Ricky Ponting captained his 50th Test match on 28 November (vs New Zealand) 12th All Time
 * 🇳🇿 Billy Bowden umpired his 50th Test match (🇮🇳 india vs 🇦🇺 australia) on 11 December 10th All time
 * Graeme Smith reached 6,000 runs in Test on 20 December (vs Australia) 49th All time
 * Chris Gayle reached 5,000 runs in Test on 20 December (vs New Zealand) 72nd All time
 * Jacques Kallis took his 250th wicket in Test on 26 December (vs Australia) 31st All time
 * Chaminda Vaas took his 350th wicket in Test on 26 December (Bangladesh) 19th All time
 * Mahela Jayawardene played his 100th Test match on 3 January (vs Bangladesh) 48th All time
 * Ramnaresh Sarwan reached 5,000 runs in Test on 6 January (vs England) 73rd All time
 * Mahela Jayawardene reached 8,000 runs in Test on 21 February (vs Pakistan) 20th All time
 * 🇵🇰 Younis Khan reached 5,000 runs in Test on 24 February (vs Sri Lanka) 74th All time
 * 🇵🇰 Younis Khan scored triple century in Test on 24 February (vs Sri Lanka) 23rd All time
 * Jacques Kallis reached 10,000 runs in Test on 27 February (vs Australia) 8th All time

ODI

 * Mashrafe Mortaza scored 1,000 runs on 14 October (vs New Zealand), becoming in the 43rd All time cricketer with 1,000 runs and 100 wickets
 * Chris Gayle took 150 wickets on 16 November (vs Pakistan) 46th All time
 * 🇮🇳 Harbhajan Singh took 200 wickets on 20 November (vs England) 30th All time
 * 🇮🇳 Virender Sehwag reached 6,000 runs on 23 November (vs England) 39th All time
 * Tatenda Taibu reached 100 dismissals on 30 November (vs Sri Lanka) 21st All time
 * Chris Gayle scored his 7,000th run on 13 January (vs New Zealand) 26th All time
 * Kumar Sangakkara scored his 7,000th run on 16 January (vs Bangladesh) 27th All time
 * Jacques Kallis scored his 10,000th run on 23 January (vs Australia) 8th All time
 * 🇦🇺 Nathan Bracken took 150 wickets on 23 January (vs South Africa) 47th All time
 * Muttiah Muralitharan got his 500th wicket on 24 January (vs Pakistan) 2nd All Time
 * Sanath Jayasuriya scored his 13,000th run on 28 January (vs India) 2nd All Time
 * Mahela Jayawardene scored his 8,000th run on 3 February (vs India) 18th All Time
 * 🇮🇳 Irfan Pathan took 150 wickets on 5 February (vs Sri Lanka) 48th All time

Test

 * 🇮🇳 Sachin Tendulkar broke the record of runs on 17 October (vs Australia) with runs scored off Peter Siddle.
 * Mahela Jayawardene and Thilan Samaraweera broke the record for the 4th wicket with 437 runs vs Pakistan on 22 February. Shoaib Malik ended the partnership by dismissing Jayawardene. The partnership faced 651 balls and Jayawardene contributed 199 runs, Samaraweera 231 runs.
 * 🇮🇳 Rahul Dravid broke the record of most catches on 6 April (vs New Zealand) upon helping dismiss Tim McIntosh.

ODI

 * Ajantha Mendis was fastest to reach 50 wickets on 12 January in his 19th match when he dismissed Ray Price (Zimbabwe).
 * Mahela Jayawardene broke the record of catches by non-wicket keeper vs. Pakistan with 157, when he caught Salman Butt on 21 January.
 * undefined achieved their highest score in an ODI with 351 for 7 in the victory over Kenya (29 January)
 * Muttiah Muralitharan broke the record of wickets taken with 503, when he dismissed Gautam Gambhir on 5 February.