THE Saints were meant to come marching into Seaford last night for a charity cricket match.

But not one player from the AFL club turned up for the McGrath Foundation Pink Stumps breast cancer fundraiser against Seaford Tigers Cricket Club.

St Kilda has been slammed for showing “contempt” towards the fixture and the Frankston community. Last year the match raised $5000 for charity.

The Saints chose the date of this year’s match with the Tigers, but were represented by only one person, understood to have been an office intern.

The Saints even tweeted the event three days ago.

Come along to our third annual T20 Charity match 🏆 tomorrow - 5:30pm MORE: https://t.co/UcPQsfceNb pic.twitter.com/GJRQJitt7F — St Kilda FC (@stkildafc) February 24, 2016

Leader has been told Seaford Tigers club officials were left scrambling about 5.20pm — 20 minutes after the match was due to start — when it became clear no players would appear for the game.

The club’s general manager of communications Craig Rowston said the players were ruled out of the match “a number of weeks ago, due to risk of injury” but blamed a breakdown in communication for the cricket club not being informed.

“We sought to arrange a team of staff to take part but this did not eventuate,” Rowston said.

“This has been mishandled by us and we are very sorry for any disappointment.

“We will talk to the cricket club and work out how we can make it up to them.”

Local sporting identity Michael Robinson, at the match to watch his father Graeme officiate, said many were left disappointed by the no-show.

“Everyone down there was shrugging their shoulders going, ‘What’s going on?’” Robinson said.

“There were even a few St Kilda fans who turned up.

media_camera The flyer promoting last night’s charity match.

“The club had to scratch together two teams and played the T20 anyway.”

Former Frankston councillor Brad Hill, an ex-Frankston Dolphins VFL president, said the council had bent over backwards to accommodate the Saints and last night they showed “contempt for the community”.

“I was on the council when St Kilda came in and what was hammered at us all the time was the advantage and the benefits to the community,” Hill said.

“They pay for the ground and the buildings $1 per year on a 50-year lease. The council spends something like $80,000 per year maintaining the oval and this is their attitude.

“I can see a pattern emerging here — they just don’t care.”

Club president Steve Brooking said the match had been advertised since November and this was probably its death knell.

“All they had to do is say ‘look sorry, this isn’t going to work for us’, we would have just arranged something else, done something different,” Brooking said.

“We had umpires organised and everything, we had to get some more guys, pick two teams and put a game together.”

Rowston said the Saints would “work with the cricket club to determine the best way forward for future years and we remain committed to supporting the Frankston region.”

Thank you to everyone who helped with the T20 tonight between the St Kilda Tigers and the Seaford Saints 󾍕 ok, so it... Posted by Seaford Tigers C C on Thursday, February 25, 2016

A $29 million redevelopment at St Kilda’s former home at Moorabbin Reserve is expected to begin this year and the club will relocate once completed.

St Kilda holds a lease for the use of the Moorabbin ground until 2039.