On September 23, Reliance Retail said it had got a Rs 5,550-crore investment from a top American buyout firm for selling a 1.28 percent stake.

Later that day, IPL team Kolkata Knight Riders was slated to play against Mumbai Indians for its first game in IPL 2020.

But while the worlds of private equity and T20 cricket are quite apart, having the same acronym for well-known entities in each of those -- KKR -- leads to the occasional confusion and subsequent hilarious results.

Let’s accept it, for the average Indian, KKR is Kolkata Knight Riders, a team co-owned by Indian film star, Shah Rukh Khan. However, for the business world, KKR is Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, a private equity company.

So when a news website which specializes in news snippets, put out a story titled, “Kolkata Knight Riders to acquire 1.28% in Reliance Retail”, the mistake went viral. (It was later corrected.)

The resulting meme-fest whetted Twitterati's appetite, which is generally on the lookout for a good laugh. But this wasn't the first time this confusion had happened.

In fact, former director of Kolkata Knight Riders, Joy Bhattacharya, recounted his experience of a similar confusion between the two entities -- except it was the other way around.

In a Twitter post, Bhattacharya said a decade ago, the placement coordinator at IIM (C) had written to him, thinking he represented the PE firm, and asking if he would be willing to hire from the management institute.

Bhattacharya's reply: "I work with the Kolkata Knight Riders, and while we will probably be looking for a lot of IIM(C) students in the future, our current focus remains on hard-hitting middle-order batsmen and a leg spinner."

Ten years ago, I got this mail from a placement coordinator at IIM(C). He obviously thought I worked for the other KKR - Kohlberg Kravis Roberts. It was a fun conversation, as you will see in the thread.

— Joy Bhattacharjya (@joybhattacharj) July 28, 2019

About KKR and KKR

Listed on the NYSE and formerly called Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co, KKR & Co is a global private investment company, headquartered in New York. It has, according to uspec.org completed investments in over 160 companies since 1977. It has a total AUM (assets under management) of a whopping $131 billion.

Meanwhile, the cricket team franchise represents the city of Kolkata in the Indian Premier League. It is co-owned by Shah Rukh Khan, actress Juhi Chawla and her spouse Jay Mehta. The team has won two IPLs till now, 2012 and 2014, and is currently being led by Dinesh Karthik in this year’s tournament being held in UAE.

Disclosure: Network18, the parent company of CNBCTV18.com, is controlled by Independent Media Trust, of which Reliance Industries is the sole beneficiary.