The Australian Cricket Academy was founded in 1987 as a joint initiative of the Australian Institute of Sport (AIS) and the Australian Cricket Board (ACB). It was initially located at Henley Beach in Adelaide before moving to the Allan Border Field in Brisbane, Queensland in 2004 and renamed the "Commonwealth Bank Centre of Excellence".
It was designed to be a finishing school for leading young cricketers and is a program within the AIS. It was for some time known as the Commonwealth Bank Cricket Academy as part of a sponsorship arrangement with the Commonwealth Bank of Australia.
The current manager is the retired captain of the Australian women's cricket team, Belinda Clark. At the end of the 2010–11 Ashes series, Troy Cooley become head coach.