The audacious gun attack on the Sri Lankan cricket team in Lahore, Pakistan, on Tuesday has jeopardised the prospect of the Indian Premier League.At stake is Rs 1,190 crore of investments riding on the tournament.Home minister P Chidambaram told televison channels that the domestic T-20 games should be postponed beyond the general elections due in April and May.

Chidambaram made the comments in view of the heightened threat perception to the popular matches and the government's inability to provide matching security in view of the general elections. Also, as the Future Tours Programme prepared by the International Cricket Council (ICC), which governs cricket across the world, is completely packed, the IPL games just may not work out.

However, Lalit Modi, chariman of the League, said it was working on a schedule to ensure that there is no clash of IPL matches with the election dates.

"The IPL is fully cognizant of the importance of general elections in a country such as ours. We will go a step further to ensure that there will be no games 24 to 48 hours prior to the polling dates. We will announce the new, reworked schedule in the next 24 hours."

A cancellation of the matches could cause huge losses to the franchisees. Already many sponsors have begun to back out or renegotiate deals. Deccan Chargers have lost their sponsors, the Jaypee group and HDIL is said to be out of the Kolkata Knight Riders team as well.