The fun ended when the genuine Patidar called, explained what the number meant, and threatened to contact the police. When police arrived a few minutes later, the SIM was promptly given back.
Cricket player Irfan Pathan has said that a small grocery store in the small village of Madagaon Devbhog in central India in the district Gariaband in Chhattisgarh, was accidentally transformed into the epicentre of India in cricketing world. This story started when on June 28, Manish BC bought a new Reliance Jio SIM in a local store. Shortly after turning on, a profile photo of cricketer Rajat Patidar appeared with the number and the origin of a successful and comical mix up was duly sown.
The phone calls which ensued were out of a comedy script: Manish received calls purporting to be Virat Kohli, AB de Villiers and then Patidar himself. With much amusement and nonchalance, the duo obliged at times going so far as presenting themselves as the name, MS Dhoni when the calls were made.
On July 15, they then answered a call which made things serious. The chatterer, humbly admitted that he was Rajat Patidar, and that the number belonged to him, a significant connection with his coaches, friends and football fraternity. When the two refused to back-down he coolly threatened to call the police.
Law enforcement came as he promised, in less than ten minutes. It is at this time when the friends came to know that they had actually been communicating with the original Patidar. They gladly gave back the SIM. Khemraj is a hardcore Kohli fan and to him the entire experience was surreal. He spoke to Kohli due to a wrong number, he laughed recalling it as the “highlight of his life”. One thing worth mentioning is that inactive numbers are usually recycles after 90 days by the telecom companies and it is probably how Patidar old number found its way to Manish, and it turned the corner shop in a village into a cricket hotline on the fly.
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