With an injury crisis already afflicting South Australia, fellow small state Tasmania is starting to suffer its own nightmare as the new Australian first-class season moves into just its second day.

The Tigers already have two of their best pacemen (Brett Geeves and Gerard Denton) on the sidelines and, after less than a week in Sydney, have been forced to add batsman Michael DiVenuto and all-rounder Scott Kremerskothen to their casualty list.

DiVenuto suffered an ankle injury in a training mishap at the Sydney Cricket Ground on Tuesday, while Kremerskothen was left the worse for wear after being felled by a Stuart Clark bouncer late on the first day of the state's Pura Cup match against New South Wales.

At this stage, the former has all but been ruled out of each of the state's next two matches - ING Cup and Pura Cup fixtures against Western Australia in Perth.

"He's gone home. The word is that he won't be right for Perth or that it's highly unlikely anyway. We've sent him home to try and get it treated and get a really good verdict as to what's wrong," said Tasmanian vice-captain Jamie Cox of the fate of fellow top order batsman DiVenuto.

"He's probably now looking (at coming back in) the game after that. Or maybe even, because we've got quite a long break in the middle of November, he might even be looking at waiting until early December."

Kremerskothen, meanwhile, remains in St Vincent's Hospital for observation after he was presented with a broken nose and a sickening lump above his left eye.

At this stage, the 22-year old is not expected to re-appear on the field either today or tomorrow, and his participation in the matches in Perth must also be in doubt.

© 2001 CricInfo Ltd