The transition from professional cricketer to real estate agent was "bloody hard," the 41-year-old said.
"You think you are going to find a job easily because of my identity but that meant nothing, in reality.
"I had a lot of knockbacks [when applying for jobs] and the thing which knocked me back was I lacked experience.
"I had all the experience in the world when it came to cricket but I was competing for jobs with people who had gone to university or who had worked in businesses. I didn’t have the chance to do that because I was so focused on cricket."
Sinclair had put all his energy into developing his game and he enjoyed enormous success at domestic level and certainly had his moments at international level.
The right-hander scored 214 on test debut for Black Caps and followed up with an undefeated 204 the following summer. None of that made any impression on a curriculum vitae.
"You start underrating yourself and start underselling yourself."
When he played cricket, everything was organised and very structured.
"But when you get out of that environment you wonder what are you going to do now."
Sinclair ended up working in a sports shop for eight months before being made redundant.
"I wasn’t proud to walk into Winz [Work and Income New Zealand] and say, ‘Hey, look, I’m Mathew Sinclair international cricketer and I’m looking for a job’."
The stress took a toll on his relationship with wife Tina.
"My wife talked a little bit about just seeing the disappointment every day when I would apply for a job and just get the same old letter coming back.
"It was detrimental to my self-esteem big time. I felt I had so much to offer, why isn’t anyone willing to make use of this?"
Sinclair eventually settled on real estate and that did not prove easy either. But business is picking up and he is travelling to India in April to do some coaching at a private school.
"I’m back in an environment where I’ve got to perform to survive, basically. It is very similar to cricket, so it is almost like I’ve got out of one competitive environment and into another."
