With an Ashes series only six months away, En-gland's cricket team will likely be looking for a new coach by the end of this week with captain Kevin Pietersen expected to win his power struggle with Peter Moores.

Although Pietersen is on vacation in South Africa and Moores is saying little, the deep rift between England's two most important figures has become a growing talking point and one of them could be only a few days away from losing their roles.

Silent about conflict

Senior officials of the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) have so far been silent about the conflict.

But, ECB director of cricket Hugh Morris and chief executive David Collier are expected to decide whether Pietersen and Moores can continue working together by Sunday, only 10 days before the team flies out to the Caribbean for a Test and one-day series against the West Indies.

Pull in same direction

"We have to make sure it is settled as soon as possible and certainly before we fly off to the West Indies," Pietersen said on Sunday in his newspaper column. "Everybody has to have the same aims and pull in the same direction for the good of the England team."

Pietersen and Moores are known to have had several differences, however, the latest being over whether former England captain Michael Vaughan should be in the squad to go to the West Indies.

Before flying out to South Africa for a vacation, Pietersen told Moores he wanted Vaughan in the team even though the Yorkshire batsmen has been woefully out of form for a year.

But Vaughan was left out having played little cricket since the end of the last domestic season and Pietersen's call for his return has little to justify it.

Vaughan stepped down as captain after losing two Tests and therefore last year's series against South Africa and was dropped from the team. Without him, Pietersen then led England to victory in the final Test.

Vaughan was again left out of the recent two-Test series in India, which England lost 1-0 and the selectors decided to stick with batsmen Ian Bell and Owais Shah in the squad for the matches in the Caribbean.

Captain's call

Although Pietersen's plea to recall Vaughan seems illogical, he is strongly tipped to win the power struggle between the two men if the ECB fails to reach some sort of compromise. Ray Illingworth yesterday became the latest former England captain to suggest that Moores, rather than Pietersen, would be fired or forced to step down.

"The captain should have the main say. He has to be the main person," said Illingworth, who also was chairman of selectors. "If he doesn't have the main say, then he doesn't have the backing of the players when he gets on to the field and it's very important that he has the backing of the other 10 players."