Professional cricket, riding on growing popularity because of shortened games, could come to Orlando in the next few years as part of a developer's plans to build stadiums in eight U.S. cities.

"Orlando, here we come," said Jignesh "Jay" Pandya, chairman of Global Sports Ventures LLC, which has been working on launching a professional cricket league in the United States for more than a year. "There are 60 million visitors a year in Orlando, and many come from around the world. They're exposed to cricket. I think it's a no-brainer."

Orchestrating funding and construction of more than a half dozen mixed-use stadiums around the U.S. by 2020 is "ambitious," Pandya said. Costs would be $70 million to $120 million per facility. Pandya said his group has secured licensing rights for a league and has private equity but will also need economic incentives from government, which could prove challenging.

The JLL real estate group is scouting sites for stadiums with seating capacity for 25,000, parking, shopping, recreation and residential. The commercial brokerage seeks 15 acres in urban areas or as many as 60 acres in suburbs, a spokeswoman said. In addition to Orlando, JLL is looking at Washington, D.C., and select cities in New York, New Jersey, Georgia, Texas, Illinois and California.

David Demarest, who heads the search team for the JLL real estate conglomerate, said he anticipated selecting an Orlando location as soon as this year.

"Our timing is aggressive. We are on a fast track," Demarest said Friday. "We started our process in Orlando, and we'll be moving forward to secure our site within the next six months there."

The location, he added, will depend on local government partnering with financial support. A city spokeswoman said numerous officials were unaware of any contact with the group.

In Orlando, the search is early but Pandya mentioned Lake Nona as a possibility. The southeast Orlando community near the airport has a sports district anchored by the national campus for U.S. Tennis Association and the training center for the Orlando City Soccer Club. Another prospect, which has pricier land, would be downtown where the Orlando Magic have Amway Center and there is a new stadium for the Orlando City.

Chances of getting government assistance could be challenging during an era when the soccer club had to change its initial plans for a city-owned stadium and privately fund it instead. At a state level, House Speaker Richard Corcoran has opposed Florida taxpayers giving incentives to businesses.

The Philadelphia-based developer, meanwhile, said the timing is right for a U.S. pro league as the country diversifies and the sport moves from days-long games to a "T20" format taking about three hours.

Rooted in India, the 500-year-old game has grown recently grown in Australia, England and the United States. The sport is ranked third in the world by Total Sportek, based on factors including audience size, salaries and biggest competition. The International Cricket Council estimates a worldwide fan base of 2.5 billion during its world cup, which is played every four years.

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JESSICA MANN / ORLANDO SENTINEL Informal cricket game at Cypress Grove Park. Informal cricket game at Cypress Grove Park. (JESSICA MANN / ORLANDO SENTINEL)

In the United States, leagues have multiplied everywhere from Des Moines, Iowa, to New York City. In Chicago, it grew from 40 league teams in 2010 to 100 in 2016, according to reports in the Des Moines Register and ESPN.

Somewhat similar to baseball, cricket is a bat-and-ball game broken down into innings, in which batsmen score runs as the teams alternate on offense and defense. Each lineup has 11 players.

Popularity had waned about 15 years ago and organizations in the United Kingdom began shortening games. The new format spread and became accepted as a reinvention of the sport. When India won the first T20 World Cup a decade ago, it launched its own T20 league and further galvanized the sport, according to Sports Illustrated. Australia and England also hail as hot spots for the sport stocked with equipment called wickets, stumps and bails.

Mounting interest is also attributed to the United States' growing population of residents relocating from India, which nearly doubled from 1.023 million in 2000 to 2.035 million in 2013, according to the U.S. Census.

Peter Jolly, president of Poinciana Cricket Club and a director of the Florida Cricket Conference, said a cricket facility in Orlando's tourism corridor would make sense because it could tap ticket-buying fans from around the world.

"Florida is a very diverse community," the 65-year-old said. "If we have a stadium here, people from all over the United States would come here if they could play cricket 12 months of the year."

In Florida, teams hail from Tampa, Orlando, Poinciana, Melbourne, Palm Bay, Jacksonville, Fort Lauderdale and Miami. Earlier this month, many of those teams participated in a July 4 tournament in Winter Haven and Poinciana, Jolly said. He also helps coach youth-development teams with players ages 8 through 22. He cited sell-out crowds with thousands of spectators at a tournament earlier this year in Fort Lauderdale.

"We have over 2,000 teams playing cricket in the United States," Jolly said. "The No. 1 location for it would be in Florida because of the weather: Cricket is a hot-weather game. You can't play cricket in the cold."

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Ricardo Ramirez Buxeda / Orlando Sentinel A Sanford team is made up of players from India and Pakistan. There are also teams in the league whose players are from the Caribbean. (Ricardo Ramirez Buxeda / Orlando Sentinel) B58652516Z.1 A Sanford team is made up of players from India and Pakistan. There are also teams in the league whose players are from the Caribbean. (Ricardo Ramirez Buxeda / Orlando Sentinel) B58652516Z.1 (Ricardo Ramirez Buxeda / Orlando Sentinel)