Joe Root, England's captain, has pledged to stick by Yorkshire in spite of the current turmoil surrounding the club, and help to reform it from within, as he called on the sport, and wider society, to "eradicate" the scourge of racism.

Speaking from England's Ashes touring base in Queensland, Root said that the revelations around Yorkshire's investigation into allegations of institutional racism by former team-mate Azeem Rafiq had "fractured our game and torn lives apart", adding that the situation had hurt him personally but that he wanted to be part of the solution.

Yorkshire were last week stripped of the right to host international fixtures by the ECB, following leaked findings of an independent panel's report on claims made by Rafiq. Yorkshire admitted that Rafiq had been a victim of racial harassment but opted to take no action against any current players or members of staff.

Yorkshire's chair, Roger Hutton, subsequently stepped down, with the ECB appointing a QC to look into the club's handling of the report.

Root, who said that he could not recall having observed any racism first-hand during his time at Yorkshire, said it was important to acknowledge the problem before seeking answers.

"It's obviously deeply hurtful that it's happened at a club that I'm so close to," he said. "It means so much for me to go and play for Yorkshire. In terms of my position - if you're not at the club how can you make any change? How can you help move things forward? As I said, I look forward to speaking to Lord Patel at some point in the future about how I can help move things forward. That's my position on things and we'll see how that happens in the future.

"The most important thing that we have to look at right now how we move forward as a sport, how we move forward as a society as well. I think this is deeper than just cricket," Root added. "I think what we need to do is address what's happened and find ways of educating moving forward, and really looking at areas in which we as a as a sport and beyond that as well.

"It's really important that we recognise what has happened [and] we make sure that moving forward we never see this happen again. And whether it's in Yorkshire, whether it's in club cricket, whether it's in the street, or whatever. We've got to find a way of confronting this and stopping it and making sure that, absolutely, we are getting rid of racism from society."

In a statement released in advance, Root said that "it hurts knowing this has happened at YCCC, so close to home", and offered his support to Lord Patel, Yorkshire's new chair.

"These events have fractured our game and torn lives apart," he wrote. "We must now recover and come back together as fans, players, media, and those who work within cricket. We have an opportunity to make the sport I love better for everyone.

"I want to see change and actions that will see YCCC rise from this with a culture that harnesses a diverse environment with trust across all communities that support cricket in the county."

Although describing it as a "societal issue", Root urged the ECB, counties, players and officials to do more to tackle discrimination within cricket. "I certainly don't have all the answers, but I think we need to educate more and earlier; we must call it out straight away and have our eyes and ears open more," he wrote.