Former cricketer's life in New Zealand

Sinclair laughs as he talks about the show now. He is now a real-estate agent in Napier, trying to get some sort of hold on his life which was spinning out of control back then during the radio show. He had retired from cricket in 2013, signed up for government dole, as he tried to find a job to put food on the table for his two young kids, Holly and Liam. Needless to say, signing up for the dole was the toughest thing he had done. “Some of my family and friends were shocked and wondered, ‘what’s happening, mate?’ But I had to do it. I had to put myself out there; a young family, and your Indian readers, where cricketers are stars, probably won’t understand, but there you go. Life isn’t all milk and honey, mate.”

The phone never rang though. “Why was no one calling me with a job, It was tough scene man. Sometimes, you can’t talk to your wife also about this. Male thing may be, but it took a while.” He got through a job at fishing and hunting business but was made redundant in 9 months. A bottomless pit of despair swirled up again. Luckily, he started talking to people, his friends, psychologist with the Black Caps, former cricketer called Marty Kain, who is in real estate business. He decided to try his hand in real estate and for the last five months he is working with Harcourts, a big real estate company in Hawkes Bay. It hasn’t changed his life around, though. It’s not a salaried position; he only gets commission cuts from sales made. His wife works at a barista, a coffee shop, part-time.

This entire turmoil post cricket has hit his marriage too. “The personal scene is tough. There are few problems with my wife, I must admit. We are trying to work things together. She has been a cricket widow for a long while — taking care of our kids while I have been away and also, this entire financial scene. It’ not been easy for her. Or for me. We are working at it.” Silence. I don’t know what to say and steer the conversation to his kids. The reason Sinclair is so candid about stuff is that he wants to ensure, he says, other kids playing the game don’t end up facing similar problems in life. He coaches the young cricketers of Hawkes Bay and often, the talk turns to life. “I tell them, 16-17 of age, that they should have a plan B. They need either to get a degree or have some work experience. You just can’t have ‘I played cricket’ in your CV. It won’t help.”